Communication and Cultural Practices Series Project (CCPS)

The CCPS is designed to address interlinkages between HIV and AIDS, gender, and cultural practices within communities. Community members are trained in various skills including moderation and facilitation as required within each community. According to Pastime Trust, they maintains regular contact with communities over the project duration, conducting performance theatre, moderating and facilitating discussions, and setting up structures within the community to continue the project when Patsime withdraws from the community.

Project activities include the following:

• Forum theatre sessions and performances: Forum theatre sessions are conducted with groups of 50 community members representing opinion and traditional leaders. The workshops are conducted as full day activities with proceedings being guided by a drama presentation by Patsime Trust. Organisers state that the presentation is purposefully designed to raise contentious and potentially contentious issues involving intersections between culture and HIV and AIDS and gender. The play is designed to raise issues and ask questions, which the discussion, which follows, will attempt to address through moderated contributions. Information collected through the discussion is documented and synthesised into a new drama presentation. The play is then presented at a public performance to the rest of the community. Immediately after the performance, a debriefing exercise is done, informing the rest of the community members about how the plot and outcome of the play was arrived at and what key issues relevant to the livelihood of the community where discussed.
• Community-Based Project Committees: The community-based committees are elected by the community, and they facilitate the continuation of project activities. Committees mobilise the community encouraging them to take responsibility for preserving progressive cultural practices that prevent HIV transmission. Other functions of the committees are to mobilise the community to recognise and commemorate national and international dates and events relevant to HIV and AIDS and gender issues.
• Community Capacity Building: The community-based committees receive training in behaviour change communication as well as in gender and HIV and AIDS issues. The training activities are coordinated by Patsime, and often other technical specialists are brought in as training facilitators of change. Committees spearhead commemoration of international and national events relevant to the thematic areas of the project, such as International Women's Day, 16 days of Activism against Gender Violence, and Culture Week, among others.

HIV/AIDS, Gender, Culture

Patsimeredu Edutainment Trust is a Zimbabwean non-profit organisation established in 2002. Patsime's core activities include production of edutainment theatre, participatory theatre for development, and capacity development for community-based theatre groups. Patsime Trust also collects information on HIV and AIDS and related development issues, such as gender and children's issues, from various development agencies and distributes them to schools and rural areas.