Sunday 8 June 2008

Saving Grace


My friend Sarah, who works for ITN, called to see if I'd seen the piece on Grace Mathanya in yesterday's Guardian.


Matthew Hahn and myself were lucky enough to work with Grace when we spent some time with Theatre for a Change in Malawi, last April, looking at how interactive drama techniques can support behaviour change and gender assertiveness and provide a key to HIV Prevention.

We're currently developing a partnership with the company in the hope that Tfac trained practitioners might pick up St.Mary's qualifications and that our Applied Theatre students will be able to work on placement, picking up a Theatre for Development module, in Lilongwe.

Grace works as a links officer for Tfac, connecting the companies facilitators with focus groups in some of the city's poorest communities after rehearsals one day she showed the garden that a group of women from her township had created to grow onions, sweet garlic and other vegetables. The drama workshops had brought them together and enabled them to take practical steps to the help maintain the nutritional stability required to ensure the anti-viral drugs wroked effectively.

It's great to see her inspiring story in print.

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