Puppets for Health Education - South Pacific

This programme works by enabling communities to perform their own educational theatre programmes for their peers. These productions provide information that is designed to change patterns of both thought and behaviour. The programme is based on the following tenets:

• Puppetry can bridge gaps of misunderstanding and bring people together to examine community social issues. Productions combine both music and humour in an effort to cross cultural and language barriers and reach people.
• The puppet is a visual metaphor, representing 'real life' - at the same time, it is one step removed from the real world. Puppets can become alive and interactive, and, when combined with humour and music, generate both an entertaining and educative experience.
• Puppetry holds up a mirror to society and gives people a chance to look objectively at themselves and especially enables people to laugh at themselves. It is less threatening than the human performer.
• Puppetry breaks down barriers - It can be used to challenge social and political barriers as well as stereotypes because it represents the 'neutral' aspect of the human, exaggerating 'larger than life' issues. The puppet does not necessarily have to belong to any particular culture or language group or social class, as these can be researched and adapted.
• Puppets can say more than the 'live' actor - They can get away with being highly controversial and thus often 'say more' about taboo issues like sex, dying, and racism. The puppet can form a 'buffer' between the performer and his audience, delivering a strong message in a light-hearted manner without offending or frightening the audience.

To enhance the work of an existing project (see "Key Points", below), organisers conducted a 10-day workshop at the Fiji Red Cross Suva office in November 2003. The aim was to expand the puppetry groups in Fiji by including 3 rural groups from Labasa, Lautoka and Sigatoka, as well as those puppeteers already operating at the national branch in Suva. The workshop was run as an initial training programme for Fiji Red Cross volunteers from many of the South Pacific Islands. These volunteers had never had any prior exposure to puppet theatre.

As part of this initiative, guest speakers discussed different issues - HIV/AIDS, STIs, and common drugs used on the islands - that the puppeteers might include in their performances. Participants were then driven to a community centre in Nandera, run by the local church. Here the Suva group performed their "Marijuana Show". While the puppeteers set up their stage, traditional Fiji dancers entertained the crowds. The puppets then performed in Wasa-Vakawiti (the local language). This show was also performed at the Naisogowaluvu Community Centre, located in a rural community on the outskirts of Suva, and at the Muanikau Community Centre. At the latter performance, the Police Chief welcomed the performers and audience and gave feedback to the puppeteers after the show. Organisers state that the feedback obtained from audiences has helped them adapt their scripts and performances to specific contexts. The final performance was for the British High Commissioner, who presented a talk on the roots of puppetry in conjunction with the play.

This programme relies on partnership. It is implemented in conjunction with both government and local community-based organisations.

With regard to the Fiji work in particular, organisers claim that - although the participants were taught how to make and perform with simple mouth puppets - they were never previously given a grounding in puppetry or shown how to manipulate this specific style of puppet. The Fiji Red Cross' puppetry-in-education programme began in 1997. After attending a 2-week drama and puppetry training course held by the Foundation of the People of the South Pacific in Lambasa, a volunteer coordinator for the Fiji Red Cross started a local puppetry-in-education group in Suva. He conducted puppetry workshops throughout the South Pacific region, using the skills he had learned in this first workshop. In 2000, the Fijian puppets became "Puppets for Peace"; the puppets promoted messages of racial harmony, independence, and neutrality. Two years later, a second puppet-making workshop was conducted in Nadi, Fiji. This workshop trained youth volunteers from 5 regional Red Cross Societies. The training included representatives from Cook Islands, Samoa, Vanuatu, Tonga, and Fiji. The volunteers were trained in HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention and how to use puppets. The workshop also trained the volunteers in puppet-making, script writing, and performance skills. To date, the puppetry programmes have focussed on such issues as Dengue Fever, HIV/AIDS, disaster preparedness, blood donor campaigns, and the environment. During the day the team performs in schools; in the evening they repeat performances, with discussions and follow-up in the local community. This strategy is an effort to allow parents to see what their children have learned and to reinforce messages. The group has worked through local government ministries and NGOs.

According to organisers, many communities in the South Pacific region are illiterate. The medium of puppetry reaches out across these educational barriers and communicates to people using their own language and customs. Thus, it is much easier to pass important social messages across, they say, without losing the audience in the process.