Culture and HIV/AIDS

HIV/AIDS: The Creative Challenge in Kenya

The first Kenya workshop was held in Nairobi in March 2006 and was attended by 25 people, representing nine organisations working on cultural approaches to HIV/AIDS prevention and care, and 11 policy, donor and media organisations.

The meeting brought together practitioners from Kenya and three from other African countries, who shared experiences for one-and-a-half days. Through these discussions, participants analysed the strengths of their approaches and the contributions they could make – in terms of both practice and understanding – to the national and global response to the pandemic. They also identified the key challenges they faced and hence the areas of work in which they could learn further from each other and from others working in related fields. Eleven participants from UN, international and national agencies joined them during the final afternoon offering their comments on the practitioners’ conclusions. The group agreed on ways of following up the meeting, and expressed the desire to establish a Kenyan network of cultural workers in the HIV/AIDS field.

A full report of the meeting is available to download here (Adobe PDF document 227 KB).

An overview report exploring issues emerging in the light of evidence from the workshop and case studies is available to download here (Adobe PDF document 180KB).

Case Studies

Four of the practitioner organisations contributed to a series of case studies based on visits and interviews. Of these four, two operate in the setting of an urban slum on the outskirts of Nairobi, one in schools and youth centres in Kisumu, and the third in schools in Nairobi and in three provinces. Youth are the main participants in all projects. This preoccupation s shared by several of the other participating organisations, although these also included projects working with adult refugee populations and with orphaned children.

Abila Creative Centre - It’s our life’ debating conventions

Community Focus Group - Artistic Approach to HIV/AIDS

Sanaa Art Promotions - Participatory Interactive Media Model (PIMM) for HIV/AIDS intervention among youth

SIDAREC - Community magnet theatre: youth approach to fighting AIDS

The network continued to meet including holding two workshops in 2007 which involved further sharing and analysis of cultural approaches and addressed issues of common concern such as advocacy, documentation, monitoring and evaluation. Summaries from these meetings will be posted here shortly.

For further information about the Kenyan network please contact Oby Obyerodyhambo, former local project manager for Creative Challenge.