The "Acting Healthy" Project

Darpana's "Acting Healthy Project" supported by 'Art Venture,' aims to raise awareness on health issues in the Vadodara district of Gujarat. Even though the main city, Vadodara, is well developed, the rest of the district remains far behind. Seventy kilometres away from Vadodara city is Chhota Udaipur, a tribal region with very poor infrastructure. Even today people in this area blindly follow age long traditions that affect their health and hinder progress. According to government statistics, infant and maternal mortality rates in this region are some of the highest in the state. Chhota Udaipur is in dire need of interventions to educate people and Darpana has chosen to use its "performance for social change" model to tackle the issues of infant and maternal mortality in this area.

The Tribal Academy in Tejgadh, Chhota Udaipur, helped identify health workers in the region who could act in these plays. These health workers were invited to Darpana for a seven-day workshop to be trained in acting for street plays. Damini Mehta, Gujarat's first female Bhavai artist, was invited to conduct the workshop.

The performances were then organised in the thirty most remote villages of Baroda district near Chhota Udaipur with the help of the health department of Bhasha Academy Tejgadh. The schedule for the performances in the villages was then made, and the publicity of the performances also done by the health workers in every village.

To attract villagers to come for the performances, the team played a local form of music called Timli, loudly on the speakers interspersing these with an invitation to the show. They also went from house to house inviting people. The people of this region don't have many sources of entertainment, so they always seem very eager to watch performances like these. Many people turned up to watch the performances, especially women.

Darpana Academy
Usmanpura
Ahmedabad 380013
INDIA
Tel. +91-79-27551389
Website: wwww.darpana.com

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Darpana
• Art
• Venture
• Ahmedabad
• Empowerment