REPACTED

By Fidel

In the dock I stood with tears rolling down my chicks as that stone faced learned fried read through my sentence, like a cobra ready to strike he lifted up is face adjusting his spectacles and looked straight into my face, fear griped my soul and lowered my spirit. Then like a preacher chasing demons out of a possessed person he read the final judgment. Like a bull in slaughter house I was dragged a long the corridors of justice. The journey to the prison passing through the straights, my memories multicolored poignant events flashing through my mind like lightening flashing across the dark pregnant skies sounding alarm for a heavy down pour.     

When the journey came to the end, it was indeed the end but the begging of a new life, we lined up on a straight line crossing the boarder to the next ‘country’ and indeed it was another country, another land, the land of sodomy for food. One thing that caught my patience is the life of juvenile prison who committed capital offence thought locked in different building they always fall sexual pray to the seniors, remember it is unprotected sexual intercourse, it is a common culture. I slept next to the sick suffering from AIDS related illness, some on ARV’s others left their medicine at home yet saving on poor diet. Lack of knowledge always leads to this behaviors for most of the senior inmates don’t have the education about HIV/AIDS. In one of the discussion some inmates believed that one can not be infected through anal sex, while others disapproved them. As the number of prisoners keeps growing, the number of the infections also increases. The myths on HIV also increased, hence some inmates avoided the sick, and some officers also treated the sick like objects by calling them names, insulting them, denying them access to basic needs and harassing them. Imagine sharing a piece of soap with a person with serious skin infection?

 It was until a group of young people came to the prison one day that I knew the word stigma and discrimination. They introduced themselves as REPACTED the group visited the prison on several occasions with participatory plays that actively involved the inmates in solving the dramatic situations created by the actors. At first I thought they were out of their minds but slowly they were bearing fruits because from a skit on Voluntary Counseling and Testing several of us went for testing and knew our HIV status. That was not the end they spearheaded in the formation of the post test club which I was an active member until 3^rd June 2008, when I crossed my last day on the wall. The post test club “hope of the sick in prison” offers home based services to the sick in prison the only challenge is lack of gloves and disinfectants, ARV/ART pregame in prison, the sick have to go through a cruel protocol to access the drugs which are not within their reach.  

When I left the prison I went straight to the Nakuru Players Theatre to thank the youth group for what they deed for my life. I also requested them if I could be a volunteer in the organization….thank God they offered me a chance and for the few weeks that have been with the organization I can act in the community and I will be ambassador of change in the prison and use my experience to change my society.             

 Story by

Fidel Mayende

AGE: 28 YRS OLD

DURATION OF CONVICTION FROM 10^TH DECEMBER 2006-3^RD JUNE 2008

Edited by Collins D Oduor-REPACTED from a video interview with Fidel and the REPACTED office

As a result as the above situations that we have come across in prisons outreaches REPACTED with support from MTV Staying-alive foundation will conduct training in the prisons among inmates and the officers. Because of the increase in number of the inmates due to post election violence REPACTED will train 30 inmates 10 female and 20 males on peer education in July. REPACTED is also train ten officers in the first quarter.

REPACTED: Forum for Behavior Change

Rapid Effective Participatory Action in Community Theatre Education and Development

P.O. Box 13361, 20100 Nakuru, Kenya

REPACTED’s mission is to define ourselves, shape our experiences, identify our strengths, tackle our challenges and celebrate our successes.

REPACTED is a community based youth to youth organization fully registered with the department of culture under the Ministry of Gender, Sports, Culture, and Social Services.

REPACTED is composed of highly qualified youth and community volunteers who form a multi –disciplinary team encompassing the field of behaviour change communication including theatre for development, HIV/AIDS, reproductive health, sexuality, gender issues, drugs and substance abuse. The team contains strong field experience and profound knowledge of the local community and their cultural behaviors.

REPACTED was formed in the year 2001 by youth theatre artists from the Nakuru Players Theatre Club within the Impact Project of the Family Health International (FHI) under the technical assistance of the Programme for Appropriate Technology in Health-Kenya (PATH- Kenya). The youth thespians formed the organization with an aim of improving their community by encouraging young people to make informed decisions and to involve them in community development. They achieve this by volunteering their theatrical skills and talents in participatory theatre methodologies, awareness campaigns and peer education and counseling.

REPACTED initiative seeks to address a range of youth development issues directly associated with HIV/AIDS: sexuality, abstinence, negotiation skills, gender issues, relationships, reproductive health, safer sexual practices and methods of protection against pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. Activities that improve knowledge attitude, skills and behaviours are organized in several settings, from learning institution to communities and special circumstance institutions, targeting youth between the ages of 15 – 24 as partners, allies, and agents of change.

Past and Current Initiatives, Collaborations, and Awards:

-APHIA II Project – funded by USAID June ’07 – Present

-Impact Project with FHI – Behavior Change Communication funded by USAID 2001-2004

-Abstinence and Behavior Change for Youth with ADRA-Kenya (Adventist Development and Relief Agency) funded by USAID 2003 – Present

-School and Prison Outreaches funded by the MTV Staying Alive Foundation. June ’07-Present

-Peace Tiles with Peace Tiles Global Project 2006 – Present

-New York Film Festivals ‘Best Finalist – Short Stories’ for a film about gender inequality

-Collaborations with Princeton University students and professors

-Founding Member elected to the national CACC (Constituency AIDS Control Committee)

-Over 800 Community Theatrical Outreaches since 2001

Contact: Collins Dennis Oduor +254721637457 oduoduor@yahoo.com, repactedkenya@yahoo.com

Hello to all

Just wanted to share with all of you, a progress report for the last one month of the events that we have been undertaking as REPACTED.

Introduction
After the visit by the MTV, staying alive foundation representatives Sarah and Georgia and sharing a lot of information about the foundation, the award and the organization (REPACTED). The organization held a two days strategic planning meeting that was attended by all the members. Through group works the members come up with ideas, methodologies, and strategies of reaching young people during the project period in the project area.

They also come up with a work plan for the first quarter, beginning July to September 2007, some of the proposed activities were as follows; 13 Magnet Theatre Outreaches and 6 mobile VCT per month in four community sites ( Lumumba, Manyani, Hilton, and Free area), three major youth events targeting youth in learning institution, and open forums, one visit per month at the Nakuru GK Prisons.

Activities
The organization held 13 Magnet Theater outreaches in the month of July. During the 13 MT outreaches, the organization reached 5400(2500 youths in prison both male and female) youths, and 56 youths between the ages of 15-24 took the HIV test and 19 people between the ages of 25-49 also took the HIV test and the results were as follows, one person turned positive, the organization also managed to distribute a total of 1933 Condoms and several IEC materials on the thematic area and concerns of the project were given out, posters, comic books, brochures, and pamphlets.

Main activity related to AA is a Peace Tiles event that we carried out with youths who are artists at the Nakuru player’s theatre for a whole day. 45 tiles were created on the day.

Challenges
Although the organization developed some IEC materials in the strategic planning meeting, there is still a great need of adopting IEC materials from other like minded organization so that we can give out variety

Young people need condoms and they kept asking for condoms during the outreaches the
Organization gave out condoms though not enough and currently we are out of stock.

One of the biggest challenges is that the organization has attracted a great number of young people who want to join the organization; this is a good challenge since the young people are from the community.

Another challenge is that we have to fit into the VCT councilor’s programme since we network with the organization that offers the service and they have their own programmes.

Way forward
The organization has set up a task force of three people to mobilize thematic IEC materials and condoms from any reliable sources through the spirit of networking

The organization is forced by circumstances to increase the number of the members and find how to accommodate them in the activities by increasing the number of the Magnet Theatre community mobilizers from 10 to 15 in order to maintain and sustain positive behavior from the new members.

The organization will hold a joint planning meeting with the VCT services providers in order to avoid inconveniences. The organization is also planning to have three of its members trained on VCT services provision and counseling.

Mostly the activities carried out are supported by staying alive foundation, apart from the PT session which was supported by the artists themselves.

1. Who is supposed to go for V.C.T?
2. What is V.C.T?
3. What is the importance of V.C.T?
4. Can an inmate access V.C.T. services?

• It was the group’s first theatre outreach in prison and working under tight security.
• The other challenge was controlling and entertaining the inmates the lack of a public address system leading to inaudibility of some of the inmates who were contributing to the sessions.
• We also lacked IEC materials to enhance the sessions.
• Prison is quite a distance from the town centre there is need to look for means of transport to the prison.

• The inmates suggested that we be making frequent visits. This suggestion was made by two inmates by the name Njoroge and “PROF.” Bomachake.
• We also promised them that the next time we go we shall provide them with IEC materials.
• We also agreed with the Welfare team from the prison that we shall be visiting the prison twice a month.
• There was also another suggestion that the outreach Programme be extended to the officers at the prison.
• The welfare department and the group members came up with a plan of organizing a mobile V.C.T. service to the inmates and the prison officers and their families.