Fighting AIDS on the street

By Elvis Basudde if street children are given a chance to be rehabilitated, they can be useful citizens. This was evident to all who attended the music, dance, drama and poetry competition at Sharing Youth Centre, Nsambya recently. The competition, courtesy of ‘Baaba project’, implemented by Goal, attracted hundreds of young people from street children’s NGOs throughout Uganda, around the theme of ‘Young people fighting AIDS on the street.’ Seeing these youths on stage, it was difficult to imagine that they are the street children who sleep on the cold concrete pavements and who turn dustbins upside down scavenging for food. They looked totally transformed. They were received with warm applause before the crowd hushed up in mesmerised silence to listen to their presentations. They displayed their creativity and artistry and held the audience spellbound with their harmonious combination of tones in their voices and interesting blend of styles. Their natural emotions that came out in their music and their loud and clear inspirational songs with powerful messages worked up the crowds and even whipped some of them into emotional frenzy. They performed a variety of music which included pop, reggae, dance hall and all the traditional music from different parts of Uganda. “This is not the usual music that we always listen to. This is the type of music that touches your heart, changes you and you start seeing things positively,” my immediate neighbour whispered to me. All the items were presented in the most humourous way but sounded a very stern warning that unless there is behaviour change in our society, AIDS will soon ruin our society. Their smart costumes, use of lively and lovely postures and their different dancing antics were all irresistible. One could have easily mistaken the event for a big school music and drama festival but not a show for street children. “Their performances had to revolve around and emphasise the issue of behaviour change other than sensitisation. This is because almost every person in the age bracket of contracting the disease is almost already aware about it,” said Kirstin Mitchell, Baaba project program manager. But why use theatre to fight AIDS? I asked Kiyimba Musisi of the Planets who trained these young stars. “Apart from providing ecstatic entertainment to the public, we feel that theatre players, musicians, actors, dancers and poets, can effectively disseminate anti-AIDS messages and campaigns,” he said. Kiyimba adds that theatre is a very strong weapon in communication and therefore ranks high in media which can put messages across to all people whether literate or not. The street children’s NGOs that participated in the festival included among others, ‘Kids in need’ (KIN), Katwe Youth Development Association (KAYDA), Friends of Children Association ( FOCA), The Tigers Club, An Open Door, Buddukiro from Masaka and Child Restoration Outreach from Mbale (CRO). The show was attended by the Irish Ambassador Mairtin O’Fainin, who was the guest of honour Maj. Rubaaramira Ruranga, cordinator of the National Guidance Network of people living with HIV and representatives from various NGOs and government and religious institutions with an interest in HIV/AIDS prevention. Maj. Rubaaramira said that the festival was timely because many people up to now did not understand how serious HIV is. He said that he has lived with HIV for 15 years but nobody looks smarter than he does. “Which means that if I had wanted to infect people I would have done it easily because nobody can identify me. We need more of these festivals because they carry good AIDS related messages,” he said. The Irish Ambassador commended Uganda for having the best policies in Africa to fight AIDS. He congratulated the young people on their performances and awarded the winners with shields. KAYDA won the drama and dance competition respectively while CRO emerged winner in singing. KAYDA also was the best in poem presentation and Buddukiro from Masaka was declared the best-organised group. The Baaba Project aims to promote the sexual and reproductive health of street children through the provision of a centralised service offering training, resources and ongoing support to NGO’s working with this target group. ‘Baaba’ is a Luganda endearment for a respected older sibling. “The Baaba project drama festival has given street children an opportunity to demonstrate that they are as talented and dedicated as any other young people,” says Andy Williams, Director of the street children’s NGO, Tigers. The GOAL Director Kathleen Campbell prayed that the festival would not be the end but the beginning. “We hope that the Baabas will take these performances to the community to educate other street and community youth,”she said.