FACILITATOR REFLECTION: OLD METHODS, NEW LESSONS Nina Benjamin (Labour Research Service & Gender at Work)
It is a very hot afternoon in November 2018. We are in the Hotel 5/10 in Freetown for Peer Learning 2. The generator is buzzing very loudly and I am trying to facilitate above the noise. There is an air of expectation in the room. The Sierra Leone Teachers Union has promised a performance on School Related Gender Based Violence (SRGBV), by a group of young boys and girls, students from the biggest Muslim school in Freetown, the Muslim Congress Senior Secondary. In Peer Learning 1 the SLTU change team had spoken about the importance of theatre in their union work. Salimatu, one of the change team members had announced: “I am an actress who loves the stage” and the rest of the change team had spoken about the importance of community theatre for awareness raising in the context of a society with relatively low levels of literacy. UNESCO statistics in the Index Mundi online report on demographics13 indicates that in 2013 the adult literacy rate was 32.43, ranking Sierra Leone 154 out of 158 countries. Like Sierra Leone, the Gambia is cited as having a 41.95% adult literacy rate in 2013. So it made sense that the 2 West African union change team action plans would include theatre as a method for raising awareness and encouraging action on SRGBV. Also, SLTU had used community theatre for social change as part of the union’s contribution to peace building after the Civil War.
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