Watch the participants from the international IGLYO conference in Amsterdam, This is Who We Are perform a flash mob (an act in which a large group of people gathers to perform an unusual act to raise awareness) by the famous Homomonument, a monument commemorating gay men and lesbians who have suffered persecution due to their sexuality. These participants fall to the ground and pretend to die to bring awareness to the problem of homophobia.

Young people make up a huge part of the population in India. There are 315 million young people between the ages of 12-24 years who make up 30 percent of India’s population. Though these young people are more educated, healthier, and more urbanized than previous generations, they still face problems. Most troubling is their lack of knowledge in terms of sexual and reproductive health.

Researchers and groups like Population Council, report that, “These young people face significant risks related to sexual and reproductive health, and many lack the knowledge and power they need to make informed sexual and reproductive health choices,” Population Council reports.

The YP Foundation

One young woman, Ishita Chaudhry, has been addressing this problem since 2002 when she began the Youth Parliament, at the age of 17. Also known as the YP Foundation, the acclaimed group designs and implements community-based youth projects, providing funds for people between the ages of 13 through 28 years to create projects related to socio-cultural, economic, legal and environmental issues.

One of the most important subjects the YP Foundation has focused on, however, is reproductive rights and sexuality. AIDS, for example, is especially problematic for the world’s youth, reports UNAIDS. The Geneva-based organization says people worldwide between the ages of 12-24 years account for four of each ten new AIDS cases. Also, (mirroring findings from Population Council, above) this age group has very little knowledge about the disease and its transmission. That’s not all. Young people are often “left to fend for themselves,” regarding all aspects of sexuality and reproduction, said Dr. Robert Carr, the Associate Director of the International Council of AIDS Service Organizations.

Spreading information with technology

The internet is a natural choice to disseminate this information. “If you’re looking at issues of sexually reproductive rights and health,” says Ishita Chaudry in a video interview (below), “then it becomes clear to provide a space where young people can continue conversations once they’ve finished community based interactions and workshops.” Because so many of India’s youth are online, it makes sense that this community is an online one. Moreover, young people can access it whenever they like and anonymously, if they like.

In this video Ishita Sharma and Ishita Chaudry speak about the YP Foundation’s online work.

Project 19

Though the Internet provides a forum for discussion about change, the YP Foundation also attempts to create communities in the non-digital world as well. One of the organization’s major initiatives is Project 19 which trains young people in New Delhi to become peer facilitators in order to lead discussions and workshops on topics that are often considered too sensitive, like gender, sexuality, reproductive rights and HIV/AIDs.

In a post on the YP Foundation blog, Ishita Chaudry sums up some reasons the initiative got underway.

Why as society, are we so scared to address any kind of sexuality education or rights cohesively? What stops us from giving people complete rather than half baked information that is critical and live saving and that can protect them from disease, empowers them to be informed individuals and that teach them to be respectful to their own needs and desires and to be respectful towards the rights of others as well?

…We have had too many years of awkward silences and far too many generations of people who have grown up not being given the opportunity to speak out about their thoughts, fears, expressions and questions.

Project 19 Annual Festival

In conjunction with Project 19, the YP Foundation also organizes (with a variety of other groups) the Project 19 Annual Festival, bringing over 600 at risk and marginalized group and urban youth from around India to Delhi. These young people, whose members range from truck drivers to sex workers, lobby and discuss how to tackle issues ranging from collective rights to sexual reproductive rights and health.

As the Daily Indian newspaper explains:

Using various mediums like art, music, theatre and dance, the festival will provide a platform to the young men and women as well as the vulnerable groups to bring forth their experience-based opinion on different issues and form a network so as to solve some of the problems together.

Society does not have much space for people who defy the mainstream, especially for those with a homosexual identity. In India, the mainstream love stories that most people encounter are about heterosexuality. But despite this glaring absence of popularity or even visibility, homosexual identity has still managed to consistently survive. The Indian films Fire and My Brother Nikhil are examples of film bringing marginalized people to the forefront.

Fire

Deepa Mehta’s Fire was released in India in 1998 and ignited the film world with its bold statement. It was about women who bond out of loneliness and neglect and who develop a lesbian relationship. The film was shocking to the Indian moral brigade who found it defamatory to the image of India in the public eye. Many went on rampages, tearing down posters and disrupting theatres where the film was playing. Though the film angered many, at the same time, it was one of the first Indian films to illustrate a positive lesbian relationship.

My Brother Nikhil

My Brother Nikhil is the story of a state swimming champion Nikhil who goes through severe psychological and social stigmatization once it is discovered that he is HIV positive. Set in Goa between 1987 and 1994, the film marks Nikhil’s struggle with with the stigma of HIV and homophobia.

The stigma of HIV

The stigma related to AIDS is shown in a scene where the other swimmers all leave the pool on seeing Nikhil. It is seen again when a restaurant refuses to serve Nikhil’s parents because their son is HIV positive. What follows is a series of tumultuous events where he is thrown out of his house and later put into jail: examples of ostracism due to being gay and HIV positive.

Breaking down stereotypes

The film is a major landmark in the Queer history of India. Not only was it one of the first mainstream Bollywood films with a gay storyline, but it also broke several stereotypes. The effeminate gay man was suddenly replaced with Nikhil, a seemingly normal man with no cliched traits to mark him as gay. This depiction of a gay man challenges the stereotype that all gay men are effeminate or dress in drag, making My Brother Nikhil a film that challenges social norms and stereotypes.

The film also challenges stereotypes by not stating how the protagonist contracts HIV. Though the public perception is that gay men contract the virus through promiscuity, this film avoids this stereotyped view by leaving the possibility of how Nikhil became HIV positive open. Instead of focusing on how Nikhil contracted HIV, it emphasizes the challenges that each of the characters face and how their changing identity is shaped through this tragedy. HIV infection here works as a metaphor for the stigma of being gay and HIV positive.

Positive images of love

The relationship between Nikhil and his boyfriend, Nigel, is also depicted in a positive way. It is heartening to see Nigel’s love for Nikhil. Despite the hostility directed towards Nikhil which also directly affects Nigel (his house is defaced and the word “faggot” is written in graffiti), he still remains committed to Nikhil until the end. Nikhil and Nigel’s relationship is one defined by love, companionship and mutual respect which again breaks the stereotype that homosexual relations are merely about the desire for physical intimacy.

Mainstream Indian films still have a long way to go till homosexuality can be out of the closet. However, films like My Brother Nikhil and Fire are paving the way for acceptance of marginalized people.

I come from a country whose HIV prevalence is one of the highest in the world (15.3%). There are thousands of organizations responding to AIDS and most of them focus on prevention of new infections. I see young HIV educators volunteering and getting nothing in return while those at the top, sit on the budget and decide what young people should do.

I am saddened that young people are being used for selfish gains of project leaders and managers.

If the AIDS response is a charity and voluntary fraternity, then let it be for everyone not just young people!

Today, young people are concerned about their future. They want jobs and a good life. As such, only a few young people are willing to get involved in the fight against AIDS voluntarily. They ask, how long shall I be a volunteer? As a young person, I want to have a good career and not just work voluntarily for other people’s selfish gains.

If I could hold back
the inevitable
and push the
unpredictable out
into the open …
If I could swallow
my qualms about fate
and blow bubbles
of spontaneity
from my wand of youth …
Then I would scream
clear into the night
and let the open
swallow me up whole.
Then I would shatter
the “windows to the world”
and reinvent them
when my youth says I’m ready.

Writer Unkown

Why can’t I be that girl? asked one young artist, Alysia, in her poem at the Philadelphia Regional Final of Brave New Voices, a show that was produced by Russell Simmons after a successful 6 seasons of Def Poetry.

In her poem, Alysia is confronting a boyfriend who wants her to remain in the shadows as ”his whore,’ for no one to know that “He holds her hand.” It is a pain filled poem about a problem many young people experience: giving in to a man’s sexual demands only to be branded a whore, for his friends and family to be unaware of her very existence. This powerful poem illustrates the power of the  spoken word.

Alysia and many other poets are using a new form of poetry to express their feelings on love: spoken word.

What is spoken word?

According to Wikipedia, Spoken Word is a phenomenon where poets speak their lyrics or poetry rather than singing them.  Spoken Word is related to “poetry slams” where spoken word artists  square off in cabaret-style duels. Although it has been popular in India for centuries, it only took shape in the United States in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In the United States, slam poetry probably arose from rap music and rapper competitions. The common element is protest and a critical or corrective tone.

New HBO series

Brave New Voices is a new HBO series about teenagers using Spoken Word. It many young people picking up the pen and taking hold of the microphone with passion, intelligence, creativity, honesty and power. Youths express their thoughts and emotions in creative and often poignant ways.

The series has become a success mainly due to the involvement of Youth Speaks, an organization founded in 1996 which has been a leading nonprofit presenter of Spoken Word performance, education, and youth development programs in the country. In addition to hosting local and national youth poetry slams, festivals, reading series, and other events, Youth Speaks also offers a comprehensive slate of literary arts education programs during the school day and after-school. In total, Youth Speaks works with 45,000 teens per year in the Bay Area alone and has created partner programs in 36 cities across the United States.

I don’t love you

Below is a poem by one of the contestants in the Brave New World Slam poetry series, entitled, “I don’t love you.”

V is for virgin

Below is a performance from Brave New Voices by a young artist named George Watsky, called, “V is for Virgin.”

The power of the spoken word

Diego, a 16 years old spoken word poet featured on the HBO series, talks about his love for this new form of art. In his own performance, he compares his feelings about spoken word poetry to the love of a girlfriend.

First poetry sex slam

On May 16, 2007, the first ever Poetry Sex Slam was hosted by M.A.R.S., (Men Advocates for Responsible Sexuality), an organization that addresses the sexual and reproductive health concerns of incarcerated males age 13-25.

M.A.R.S. hosted the event in collaboration with the Corvallis poetry group, “Pints and Poetry.” Festivities took place at Iovinos Ristorante in Corvallis, and over 100 participants attended. Audience members judged poets delivering messages on safe sex, love, and sexuality in the form of spoken-word poetry.

On May 14 2008, MARS hosted the 2^nd annual Poetry Sex Slam at Cloud 9. This time, the audience more than doubled as over 200 people attended.

Sharing their experiences

Youth Action Network is another organization that has been using spoken word to reach out to others. Teens involved with the organization share their experiences of young people growing up in Canada.

As poetry changes in form and style, the way it affects young people has changed too. Young people are using this new form of poetry to let their brave new voices be heard.

Is theater a useful tool when it comes to teaching young people about sex and love?

Youth must be educated on love, relationships and sexuality. In this context, many countries are looking at ways in which they can approach these sensitive topics without seeming to condone and encourage young people to engage in sex at an early age.

Only a handful of film producers and playwrights have used this medium to demystify and educate the youth on these matters. Below are examples from different countries.

What is your opinion: Is theater a useful tool when it comes to teaching young people about sex? Please share your experience.

Keeping films for children and youth in focus

Lola Kenya Screen is an annual international audiovisual media movement that seeks to place production tools in the hands of children and youth for the advancement of literacy, gender equity, self expression and democracy. This year’s Lola Kenya Screen Festival (2009) presented films that addressed sexuality, self-determination, HIV/Aids, spirituality and friendship.

“Stupid words, deaf ears”

Of great note was the film “Palabras necias, oidos sordos”,  (”Stupid words, deaf ears”), a one-minute fictional film from Argentina:

Daniela asks her mother what sex education is, but her mother in an effort to avoid the topic pretends to be very busy preparing food for the family and refers Daniela to her dad for an answer.

Ends up getting gang-raped

“A crack in the wall”,  a film directed by Phillippe Talavera of Namibia. In this film Susan Njikata, a university student goes to a club with her friends where she ends up getting gang-raped.

A full review of the festival and the films showcased can be found here.

Love and incest

“Sex in the Summer in the City” is a series that was showing at the Black Ensemble Theatre under the direction of Jackie Taylor http://www.blackensembletheater.org/jackie_taylor.php whose mission is to eradicate racism and its damaging effects upon our society through the utilization of theater arts.

The mission of Black Ensemble Theater is to showcase the history of African American people, while reaching out to a cross-cultural audience and serving disenfranchised communities. All plays in the series are directed by Daryl Brooks, and each introduces audience members to a different playwright, with a perspective on sexuality.

The series begins with Wendell Etherly’s “A Love Misplaced,” which dives right in and tackles incest, revolving around the role that sexuality plays in family life. Etherly, an Illinois Arts Fellowship Award-winning playwright, depicts the painful mourning process of a man who has recently lost his wife and who realizes that he has neglected his daughter, a girl who tries to find love in all the wrong places.

Ignoring youth

“Youth…can be an instrumental force in promoting social change, yet they are largely ignored and stifled”

The quote is from Cynthia Burdyshaw, who is the founder of IMAGES (formerly New Image Teen Theatre), a group that has been presenting original performances created by and for adolescents and young adults. Each year, a cast of eight teenagers of varying ethnic, socio-economic, and academic background backgrounds, ages 16 to 19, are chosen to participate in the program. They dedicate most of their summer and free time to prepare for one or two performances throughout the 7 1/2 month season.

“Contraceptive Congo” explain the proper use of birth control, especially condoms. This playful comedy begins with Brandon and Maia, a couple in love, who show that they truly care about one anther’s well-being. Brandon tells Maia that he believes it’s’ now time to become more intimate…”You know, have sex.”

Read more about New Image

Mother and daughter

Southwest Community Health Center’s Teen Theater Program is an educational theater group performing original works dramatizing important social and health issues for youth, such as parent-teen communication, body image, teen pregnancy, gang prevention, non-violent communication, healthy relationships, and positive self-esteem.

The group has written and performed plays on different themes that affect the youth. Some of their plays are; “In the waiting room” which portrays teens discussing hot topics such as emergency contraception and abortion. “Mother and daughter” which is about beginning a conversation with parents, among others.

Picture: From Lola Kenya Screen.

Words can sometimes fail to show the stark reality but one can never go wrong with a video footage of the actual victims. The message most often than not does reach home when the victim speak in their own voice.

Here are some featured videos of various youth in different African countries talking about their experiences on Sex, relationships, love and the harsh consequences.

Catherine Wanjiku, a 16 year old, pregnant with her 2^nd baby from one of the many Kenyan slums.

Alphelele Ndamase is an 18 year student at Hillbrow High School in South Africa. She admits that she is in love with her teacher whilst still having a boyfriend

Pamoja Mtaani is an animation video game that was developed through the collaboration of the U.S government and a private entertainment company have teamed up to  help curb the spread of HIV and AIDS.

The  Voice Of America (VOA) video takes a look at the Teenage Pregnancy in Nigeria in this video

A growing number of young people around the world are using blogs to connect with others and express themselves on issues such as love and relationship. In this post, we have selected bloggers in Iraq, Canada, India and South Africa. Their writings show that love and relationship have no geographical boundaries. Conversations about love unite young people regardless of where they come from.

Iraq

Najma is a 20 year old blogger from Iraq. In one of her recent posts she celebrates the second week of the anniversary of her engagement to “the most amazing man…” Through love, she has been able to find the brighter side of life in Iraq. She writes:

“The single most beautiful thing in life must be to love someone who loves you back.. It changes everything; the world is suddenly pink, you feel happier and safer than ever, and want to live every moment forever. Tomorrow is the second week anniversary of my engagement to the most amazing man..

They were two weeks in heaven. My fiance is actually a blogger and I don’t want to bother you with the details (…) of how it all happened.. all you really need to know is that I’ve finally found the bright side of my life in Iraq, and that I’ve never felt luckier! Everything feels different now.. I am different now.. this is the beginning of the rest, and the best, of my life.”

India

PRINCESS SONSHU described herself as “a teen with lots of ideas and thoughts.” Sometimes she puts her ideas and thoughts into poems. One of them is a poem about love titled Breathless:

“Almost gave up on Love
All the pain
Time seems to be frozen
My hearts melting
Im going crazy but I’ll keep on moving

I dont care what they say
I’m in love with you
They’re all pulling me away
But im holding on
I keep breathing
even though im breathless

Come here
I cant hear the screams
someone’s got to keep me from fallinf
I see you everywhere
Im going crazy
Is this because of love?

I dont care what they say
I’m in love with you
They’re all pulling me away
But im holding on
I keep breathing
even though im breathless x2

You come and open your arms
that doesnt hep
It makes it harder to believe the truth
They dont understand this love
It makes me crazy

I dont care what they say
I’m in love with you
They’re all pulling me away
But im holding on
I keep breathing
even though im breathless x2″

Canada

A 15 year old blogger from Ontario, Canada asks, “Is it just me or have teenage relationships gotten way more serious than they used to be? “:

“Is it just me or have teenage relationships gotten way more serious than they used to be? It seems like everyday I hear a new story from a friend who knows someone who knows someone who’s pregnant, or lost their virginity at a party.

I’m starting to feel like an un-hip mom who’s out of the loop. When did we get so sexual? When did we start wanting to have sex? Why didn’t I get the memo?! All I hear now is “Oh, did you hear so-and-so had sex?!? Yah!” or “I heard she might be pregnant, her and her boyfriend have sex like everyday.”

I feel like ripping my brains out when I hear stuff like this. It’s crazy to think not too long ago just KISSING a boy was the talk of the hallways, now it’s completely different. But my question is, are these teenagers aware of the after effects of just one night of bliss? Are they aware that the pregnancy rate in teenagers have skyrocketed in the past years?”

South Africa

Innocent, a South African blogger, discusses love crimes. He writes, “Many people kill because of love. those who are more learned call it “love crimes”…”:

“Many people kill because of love. those who are more learned call it “love crimes”, at first I didn’t agree with this but now I see that it is possible, to me love is like an ocean, an ocean is beautiful and shining when it is still at its own place but when storms and curricanes comes, the ocean, the ocean destroys everything at the vicinity, and that is the disaster, so is love”.

Rebone has a piece of advice for other young people, “Dont expect his heart.”:

“So you loose your virginity to a guy whom you think you will spend the rest of your life with…reality happens and you realize that it was actually more of a learning curve. Most girls have a lot of expectations when coming to sex and perhaps thats the problem”.

Creative commons photoby Bob Fornal ( from Flicr)

A significant number of bloggers in Africa write poems to express their feelings of love, hurt, betrayal, regret, pain and joy.

The topic of love and relationships is one that evokes a lot of interest and expression from young people in all spheres regardless of race or social status.

This more often than not does border on sex, something that most African youth term a taboo to talk about but ironically are engaging in at an even younger age than ever seen before

One could attribute this to lack of sex education in almost all African institutions and a virtual no go zone as far as family discussions go. It is due to this that many young people are often misguided about the fine line between love and sex, their sexuality and how to handle relationships with the opposite sex.

Young people “out to punish their parents”

The previous lack of forums where young people could easily discuss their experiences, fears, desires and opinions openly has for a long time made it seem like the young people are out to punish their parents and just acting rebellious and engaging in relationships that lead to either pregnancy, HIV infection or abuse.

The internet has also gained a similar if not a slightly greater interest as Love and relationships to the youth everywhere. This has been proliferated greatly by the emergence of social networking sites with Face Book having the greatest impact on young people who can access the internet.  This is because this particular social networking site has made it easier for young people to meet old friends, former high school mates and even peers that they had a crush on but barely had the guts the approach.

Those seeking to express their thoughts, feelings and opinions have turned to blogs- another type of social networking medium that is slightly different in that it allows one to share their experiences in a diary like format and can receive feedback in form of comments.

Blogging about love in Africa

According to Afrigator – a social media aggregator and directory built especially for Africans who publish and consume content online; there are currently 11,386 blogs in Africa with South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya respectively having the most number of blogs. The total might be higher than that as not all bloggers have registered with Afrigator.

Out of the total, there is a significant number of bloggers who have chosen to let their poems be the tools of expressing their feelings of love, hurt, betrayal, regret, pain and joy while some have also used poetry to speak out on the ills that are affecting many African Societies.

A plea for forgiveness

Thelma Migue Flinston is a  mother and a fun loving person as she describes herself in her blog cizoepoetry.

She says this of her blog

THIS IS WHERE YOU GET POETRY AT IT’S BEST. THIS IS THE MIRROR TO MY SOUL.

Her poem Ashamed is a plea for forgiveness and feeling of deep guilt for something that has made the person she deeply cares about change.

One can easily tap into the emotional turmoil in the poem as she describes her futile attempt in seeking forgiveness

I am sorry for what I did,
I didn’t mean to embarrass you.
I saw the look in your eyes
I felt the pain
I am ashamed of what I did.

I don’t know what I did wrong
But I can feel it all around
I can tell by the way
You look at me.
I miss the look
That said I was your only gal.
©thelma migue, 2009

read the rest of the poem here

Her other poem Tragedy is also on love and a relationship that ensued after she met this person 2 years ago. The poem has an interesting twist to it and is proof of Thelma’s stretched imagination.

Tragedy

Two years ago,
We met at the mall,
Sized each other up
Neither of us was ready to approach the other.
Finally he gave in
Names and numbers were exchanged
Places of work and residences discussed
As we got to know each other better.
We sized each other up

Read Full Poem

True to her blog’s description, hers is truly a place where she lets you look into the mirror that reflects her soul’s emotions.

But what about consequences?

Wayne Visser is an ardent poem contributor and the force behind  Poets of Africa – A blog for all Poets of Africa to share their work with each other and the world. He  is  the Founder and CEO of CSR International and the author/editor of seven books on the role business in society. Wayne lives enjoys art, writing poetry, spending time outdoors and travelling in his home continent of Africa.

In his poem We Could he explores issues of  consequences, responsibility, expectations and destiny

We could …

But what about consequences?

I’ve thought about it

And savoured the thought

Dreamed about it

And woke up still smiling

So, we could …

But what about responsibilities?

The thrill of beginnings

Leads to the ache of endings

Happy-go-lucky now

Means sad-and-lonely later

Yes, we could …

Read the full Poem here

Love games

Wayne has written a large collection of poetry on various themes and on love he has written on themes like adultery, afterglow, cyber- chat, enchanted, love games and mystery among others.

Injete Chesoni’s poem Healing Rain is a poem of utter heart ache amidst fading hope of a love break up

I thought my tears would make you love me again,
I thought my tears would fall on the roots of our love
and nourish it like rain.
I thought my tears would pierce your heart,
and help us to make a brand new start.

I thought my tears would make you feel my anguish and pain,
and draw you back into my arms again.
I thought my tears would flow with yours
and create for us a pool of love.
I thought my tears were heavenly showers
with magical healing powers.
A trickling sent from the heavens above,
That would fill our hearts with joy and love.

From Healing Rain: Heartbreak Poems, Break-Up Poems and Sad Love Poems By Injete Chesoni.

Her’s is a BLOG that

FEATURES ARTWORK, METAL ART, POETRY AND SHORT STORIEs.

Time to take a bow

Glady’s is ‘A proud Kenyan Undergraduate’ whose blog The Undergraduate features her poetry on love and relationships. Her poem, time to take a bow is a her latest poem on a lover she has lost to someone else.

Her other poem Kisses is a piece on her love and vow of devotion.

Other poets that have written on love and relationships are  The East African Poet in his poem Letter from a contract worker – Antonio Jacinto

RawPoet a blog by Eastlandah  also features a poem by Laban Erapu called I beg you

It is interesting to see just how many have turned to blogs as tools to express their deep feelings and emotions through poetry  and it is undoubtedly a new forum that young people in Africa can use to get their voices heard on a subject that still met with a lot guarded emotion. Of love and relationships.

When it comes to health campaigns, there are many barriers. Let me give you an example from the real world with a focus on Tuberculosis (TB). TB is one of the great causes of morbidity and mortality in the world today, with the World Health Organization estimating that one third of the world’s population is infected with the TB bacteria.

A day in the life of a man getting tested for TB

One evening, a man working for a farmer in a community is visited by a community health worker in a door-to-door campaign aimed at preventing the spread of TB.

The aim is to raise awareness, and encourage individuals to be tested and treated for TB. The skin test is free and provided by a health clinic in a rural agricultural region.

This well-intentioned health worker who lives in the community is invited into the home of this man, and has an opportunity to educate him and his family on Tuberculosis. The health worker concludes the presentation by encouraging the family to be tested for TB at the free clinic in town. The man, not wanting to put his family at risk, and having been compelled by the presentation of this neighbor, plans to visit the clinic the following week.

On Monday, following a 14 hour day at work, he takes the bus from the farm where he works into town to attend the free clinic. He arrives shortly after 7pm and is dismayed to find a large sign indicating the clinic is closed and hours of operation are 8am to 5pm. After some negotiation with his boss the following morning he plans to visit the clinic first thing the following morning and then head back to work after the testing is complete.

The next morning he takes the bus directly into town and arrives at 8am at the opening of clinic, after 20 minutes navigating the building to find the TB testing area he is only met with more bad news- the free testing takes place from 11am-1pm only.

Having lost a morning’s worth of work he stays until 11am is tenth in line and finally at 12:00noon he is next in line, finally he is called forward and the 5 minute test is completed. He is then told to get the results he will need to come back in two days time between the hours of 11am and 1pm. He heads back to work in time to work the final two hours in the field and then journeys on home.

Use your imagination to hypothesize how this story continues.

Victims of false advertising

It is not until we venture into a ‘Day in the Life Of’ or DILO (a term shared with me by Dr. Everold Hosein) that we truly understand the barriers both individual and systemic that plague even the most well-intentioned campaigns to promote health and other social programs.

Now, the clinic did have some important aspects to their campaign that were culturally sensitive and responsive to the needs of the particular community:

• they utilized key opinion leaders from the neighborhood to implement the door-to-door campaign and
• they eliminated the financial cost of TB testing to encourage participation.

However, there were some crucial elements of the program that were not dissected and thus resulted in loss of income, and physical and emotional stress:

• the health center did not boast clear signage, and therefore potential patients were left roaming around a large building trying to locate the specific TB clinic area.
• the health center was open ‘business hours’, which was totally incompatible with the population they were trying to reach- mostly farmers working 14 hour day.
• the free testing was only available during the middle of the day and almost certainly required the patient to take an entire day off work to get to the clinic, receive testing, and return home.

The way forward?

The story and context detailed above could be equally applied in most communities in the world, switching farm worker for fisherman, and switching TB for HIV/AIDS and so on. We oft move too quickly in our planning to focus on the outcomes we wish to achieve, and spend frighteningly too little time understanding our intended audience of our campaign to create an intervention that is both meaningful to the consumer and appeals to their needs and desires, while also reducing barriers to encourage participation.

While, I cannot offer a comprehensive solution or technique that will insulate the most well meaning campaigns from the challenges that have been touched on above, I endeavor that in our respective fields and roles as advocates and professionals within public health, and international development that we remain mindful of the DILO. This perhaps will reduce health disparities and promote equitable access to health and social programs and services.