Proyecto Payaso

Clowning and street theatre in service of HIV and AIDS communication

Proyecto Payaso is the principal project of the Asociación Payasos. Its aim is “To provide access to timely and accurate information about HIV and AIDS to vulnerable populations in a culturally appropriate manner on a regional scale resulting in a population better able to negotiate safe sex, condom use and harm minimisation, increased awareness of sexual health rights, and an enhanced political and social environment in which the vulnerable groups can contribute to national efforts to reduce stigma and discrimination towards PLWHA and HIV prevention.

The project’s four strategies

 

1. Information and Communication

Street theatre

Street theatre has proven a particularly lively and effective way of communicating information on sensitive subjects to large numbers of people. Street theatre and clown shows have been developed, implemented and refined by the Clowns’ field teams since 2001 in over five hundred vulnerable communities and in fifteen languages, and have benefited from the input of a network of highly qualified theatre, sexual and reproductive health, and project management professionals. The Clowns’ 75-minute street theatre presentation, covering key information about HIV transmission, and prevention is appropriate for all ages and backgrounds, and condoms are explicitly named as a highly effective prevention method for sexually active individuals. The shows have generated considerable debate at the grassroots. Since 2002, the groups of Youth Peer Educators have developed their own shows, which cover basic transmission and prevention information, as well as essential messages of solidarity with PLWHA and destigmatising messages designed to reduce fear and spread information on human rights, including the rights of HIV+ people.

See 4 minutes of selected video footage

Participatory workshops

These are structured 90-minute workshop where HIV/AIDS-related issues are examined in depth with groups capable of multiplying the information and impact of the intervention. Workshops are participatory, following principles of non-formal education and a Freirian definition of participation, allowing people from a variety of educational backgrounds and learning styles to examine the issues, including through the use of hypothetical situations and risk analysis. Specific situations are discussed with sex workers, and others whose occupations expose them to risky situations. The educational methodology will be systematised and strengthened during the life of the project through ongoing training and discussion, both within the field teams, within our national networks and at international fora with extended networks. The messages both technical and political, that are communicated at the grassroots will therefore reflect the cutting edge in how people directly affected experience these issues and articulate their responses.

Download lesson plan

Download Hypothetical Situations

Development of educational materials

The Project has pioneered the development of HIV print based materials for low literacy populations in indigenous languages. Materials are developed along strict guidelines that involve validation by the beneficiary communities and broad consultations as to essential messages.

Download educational materials

2. Human resource development

Ongoing learning and professional development

The senior management team is involved in continuous professional development to keep on the cutting edge of worldwide discussions on HIV. We regularly contribute to furthering knowledge within the community sector with submissions of papers, abstracts, workshops and others to international conferences and congresses (CONCASIDA 2001, 2003, 2005 and 2007, AIDS 2004 and 2006, World Conference on Communication for Development 2006). The organisation has also conducted or resourced a number of research projects over the years, including needs assessments, evaluations of impact and process conducted along principles of participatory action research.

Download Evaluation reports

Download sexual health information needs of Socially Apart Youth

Download Clowns conference abstracts

Youth Peer Educator training and support

Over the years, the youth peer education programme has evolved into a major strategy of the Clowns. Currently, four groups operate under Proyecto Payaso, each with their own shows, geographical areas and beneficiary populations. Youth peer educator theatre troupes receive training and funds from the Clowns, are supported with materials and transport, participate in financial management and monitoring of field activities. They manage and coordinate themselves autonomously.

Programmes specifically for YPEs include Training the Trainer and annual youth theatre festivals against AIDS and AIDS-related stigma and discrimination. Exchange visits will be arranged between YPE theatre groups and between sister organisations (in Guatemala and regionally South-South with Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador and Mexico) to enable sharing of skills and experiences.

Since 2002, over 270 young people have been trained and conducted activities in over 200 communities.

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South South Exchanges

The secondment programme’s success has been that it has produced locally adapted replicas of the Clown project in several countries throughout Latin America, and a fledgling but enthusiastic network of like minded groups and organisations who advocate on behalf of those who are most vulnerable to HIV yet least visible in national strategic plans. Two successful pilot were completed in the marginal outskirts of Lima, Peru and in rural Chiapas, Mexico, implemented by former secondment programme participants (“becadas” in Spanish) with seed funding raised and administered by the Clowns. Another training programme for Youth Peer Educators was carried out in Mérida, Venezuela by a third becada with funds raised independently and continues to this day. A fourth programme is under way in marginal urban and rural areas around León, Nicaragua. A successful programme has completed in Guatemala city’s marginal urban areas and another is about to begin in afro-caribbean Garifuna communities along the Atlantic coast of Honduras.

The Clowns have, for reasons of cost, prioritised Mexican and Central American candidates in order to ensure some follow-up, even though many expressions of interest have come from South America, from where travelling and communications costs increase substantially, not having the resources to maintain contact with a widespread network. Funding for a regional theatre based community based HIV services network is being sought in order to be able to take advantage of these sorts of opportunities and encourage more south-south exchange and focus.

Contact the South-South exchange programme

Download South-South Exchanges articles (Toronto, AIDS 2006) – English only

 

 

3. Lobbying and advocacy

These activities aim broadly to create an enabling environment for greater equity in service provision across the region. On the local level, we engage groups such as churches, health service providers, and policymakers in a constructive dialogue about the vulnerability of the beneficiary groups and the importance of HIV-related activities. Field interventions also create awareness of rights amongst the vulnerable groups with respect to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and HIV, helping them make their voices heard in a playful and lively, yet powerful manner. Broad inter-sectoral networking and broad-based consensus-building on a national level will be the most effective way of creating the political will essential to minimising the impact of HIV and AIDS on Guatemala’s indigenous majority.

Other activities include outreach with PLWHA groups to support their own communication activities, organising network forums and conferences, proposing abstracts and workshops to regional and global conferences, participation in networks, forums and debates (media, live, virtual) and publishing key messages. Appropriate media policy and action plans will be developed. Activities will also be stepped up to influence Global Fund allocations in Guatemala (to expand and diversify areas and beneficiaries in line with more progressive visions of national realities), contribute to a national condom distribution protocol to enhance availability, and to create local demand for health services.

The Clowns will also contribute to broadening rural access to ARVs, and collaborate with sister organisations to heighten the profile of existing counselling and testing services, through the networks to which they have been contributing.

4. Organisational development

To shape and maintain an organisation capable over time of representing the interests of its beneficiary communities and sustaining AIDS campaign over the long term, our primary effort is to train and develop a strong human resource base in both education and communication and project management and administration. Our commitment to ongoing skills building is also central to how we manage the field teams of youth peer educators towards greater autonomy and empowerment. Also, our efforts at organisational strengthening will include the consolidation and systematisation of our communication and educationa methodology, and the systematisation of organisational processes and decision making and administrative procedures.

After five years working under the legal umbrella of a small local NGO, Prodesca, the Clowns gained legal non-profit/charity status in Guatemala in 2006 with financial assistance from a national network of indigenous health organisations. The skills base within the organisation has been developing to administer and manage larger projects with greater autonomy. Internationally, the Clowns have been strengthening a regional Latin American network of sister organisations building linkages with educational institutions such as the national Universidad San Carlos School of Social Work and Universidad Ramon Llull’s Social Education programme in Barcelona. In 2006, the Clowns devoted energy to long-term planning and diversifying their grants base whilst maintaining their profile in the communities where they have been working and expanding their activities into new areas such as urban shanties and remand centres. As part of its organisational development plans, a strategic planning process has been followed, culminating in the recent finalisation of a 5 year Strategic Plan (Spanish version available). In 2007, the main bulk of the field work has been turned over to troupes of Youth Peer Educators, and the Clowns have maintained only a small core of staff to support and resource these groups, providing on going training, technical and financial assistance, and where funds have been secured, opportunities for the professional and leadership development within the groups of YPEs.