Past projects

AIDS/HIV DRAMA IN PRISONS (BR) 1996 - 2000
PROJECTO DRAMA was an AIDS/HIV theatre education program implemented in 43 prisons in the State of São Paulo, Brazil from 1996-2000. The programme was sponsored by the British Council, FUNAP (the state agency for Education and Work in Prisons) and the Brazilian Ministry of Health.

The overall aim of PROJETO DRAMA was to reduce the risk of infection by AIDS/HIV within the prison population in São Paulo by:

• Training staff within the prison education service in the use of forum theatre techniques.
• Reducing the difficulties of receiving and interpreting relevant information about AIDS/HIV prevention within the everyday living conditions of the prison.
• Stimulating debate and reflection about the control of infection, promoting prevention of AIDS/HIV.
• Raising questions about the doubts and anxieties produced by HIV/AIDS, trying to find adequate responses for the particular situations in which the prisoners live.
• Creating conditions for reflection about the prejudices surrounding people living with AIDS/HIV in prison, and ways to improve their living conditions within the general prison population.

The increased risks of AIDS/HIV for the prison population are complex. The marginalisation of this population before, during and after their imprisonment radically affects the ways in which they receive, understand and act upon health education information. The basic information about AIDS/HIV does not change, but the means by which this target group can be empowered to make necessary behavioral changes needs to be addressed within the specific context of their everyday lives.

The project began as a pilot programme in 1996 with the aim of implementing a small-scale health education project focusing on the transformation of attitudes towards AIDS/HIV in 4 prisons in the State of São Paulo. Following successful evaluation by the Ministry of Health, the project was awarded further funding to implement the program in 42 prisons across the State of São Paulo and reached over 9,000 prisoners in 1999/2000.

Through game playing and other theatrical strategies, the participants in the workshops began to use their own bodies and the bodies of others to express the ways in which they see the world and how they might begin to want to change it.

Information about AIDS/HIV was introduced gradually in relation to the questions, doubts, and anxieties that arose from the dramatic situations, which the prisoners create in the workshops. Although the work finds its starting point in the subjective world of each participant, the dramatic techniques help to provide a safe and secure means by which difficult subjects can be raised via exercises and games. The physical work was used as a means of accessing the group's perceptions about AIDS/HIV as well as demonstrating practically the collective support and action that is needed to confront situations of risk and prejudice.