Implementing Multiple Gender Strategies to Improve HIV and ... - ICRW

LAPHUM’ ILANGA (SUNRISE)
LEAD ORGANIZATIONS:
COUNTRY:
HIV PROGRAM AREA:
Mothertongue
South Africa
Prevention, Care and Support
OVERVIEW:
Laphum’ Ilanga (“sunrise” in Xhosa) uses participatory arts, primarily community-based theater, to
explore the links among violence against women, gender norms and HIV. The program aims to raise
awareness and build capacity among women to explain their own HIV and AIDS and violence
experiences. Women create and perform dramas, engaging the audience in an analysis of the
gendered dynamics of HIV and the hard realities the women have experienced, such as rape, partner
abuse, poverty, unemployment, living with HIV and disclosing their HIV status. In addition to drama,
the program uses creative writing, visual arts, photography and movement to help participants share
their perceptions about the causes of violence against women in their community. Evaluation results
show that the positive community response has bolstered women’s confidence in their abilities to
serve as change agents and that women are leaving abusive relationships. A key lesson is the need
to involve other organizations doing similar work (on HIV and/or violence) to coordinate messaging to
reinforce positive changes begun through the Laphum’ Ilanga project.
BACKGROUND
HIV & AIDS
Program Goals
Laphum’ Ilanga explores the intersections between violence against women
and the spread of HIV. It aims to raise awareness and build capacity
among women to articulate HIV and AIDS and violence issues, and to help
them come to terms with their HIV-positive status.
Gender Strategies
Addressed
Reducing violence and coercion
Addressing male norms and behaviors
Increasing women’s legal protection
Increasing women’s access to income and productive resources
Other:
Description of
Intervention
Laphum’ Ilanga, a one-year project implemented in 2006, served lowincome
women living in Khayelitsha, a former township area on the
outskirts of Cape Town. The program started from the premise that gender,
power, and HIV and AIDS transmission are linked. The project employed
participatory arts methodologies, primarily community-based theater, to
explore these linkages. Using drama, women performers and the audience
analyzed the gendered dynamics of HIV and AIDS and the lived realities of
the women participants. This included poverty, unemployment, living with
HIV and disclosing their HIV status. The performances also addressed
gender-based violence, particularly rape and physical abuse, as well as
traditional male norms and behaviors that were harmful to men, women
and the larger community.
The program used various forums and methods for mobilizing audiences
through performance. For example, one technique involved women
performing a show in a public space such as a shopping mall, clinic or taxi
rank. They began with songs that were thematically linked to the show,
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