Project Anna: Drama for HIV/AIDS Prevention DONATE
Please download file for entirety of project proposal. To join us, please see our volunteer opportunities or download application.
Anna & Talia
Project Anna is a partnership between BamatMabat and Garisco to run additional street theater projects in Tanzania starting with the Kilwa District. At various workshops, BamatMabat will provide leaders of the workshop to train local professionals (teachers, social workers, etc.) in the art of street theater. The international coordinator of Project Anna, Talia Weiss, visited Tanzania for one month in Summer 2009. During this time, she facilitated four street theater groups and trained two professionals.
Project Anna differs from other street theater based campaigns combating HIV/AIDS as it is intended to:
- * Train professionals in the method of street theater thus enabling the groups to function on their own without the constant interference of outside workers. The arrival of outside workers is usually costly, less sufficient, and can be seen as an intrusion by the natives. Professionals indigenous to the region know the resources available, speak the language, and are familiar with the culture and therefore would be the ideal and effective candidates to educate about HIV/AIDS prevention. This is as opposed to forces from abroad who staff most HIV/AIDS campaigns.
- Train and produce peer educators. As mentioned earlier, due to lack of sexual education in the school system and low number of teenagers enrolled in school, most HIV/AIDS education ends up being inadvertently peer based and is therefore grossly erroneous. It is important that youth who are seen as leaders in their community immediately ascertain correct information.
- Reach areas (such as Lindi) which have yet to have seen successful IEC programs.
- Be long term. Project Anna will begin with the Kilwa district and should cover the entire Lindi region within a X year period. The project will then continue nationally to other rural regions.
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| proposal.doc |
Who is Anna?
Mama Garroto
Taken from an e-mail Talia wrote from Tanzania:
"This 19 year old girl has changed my life. I arrived in the rural region of Kisarawe last Monday. Kisarawe is only 45 minutes outside of Dar es Salaam (the main city) but many of the inhabitants simply cannot afford the ~80 cent bus ticket. I met Anna that Monday morning (she thought the group started that day, but it started on Tuesday). Anna is petite at best, the size of a 12 year old, but she has presence. There’s something about her face, in her eyes possibly; when she walks into a room, you notice her. Anna appears rough and tough. She had a loop made out of this earthy colored string in place of a proper nose ring. I introduced myself (in Swahili) and she smiled: the warmest
smile you have ever seen.
Anna came to the group the next day and was just fabulous. She was extremely weary at 1st, but completely opened up within an hour. She quickly became one of the leaders in the group. I learned later that day that the kids in this group had failed out of school and were just totally lost in life. On Wednesday, Anna came late. I was told that she had gotten into a physical fight with someone the night before. I accepted this news with a grain of salt as I have worked with people who are violent before (in prisons and with ex-convicts and drug users). I figured: she’ll come when she comes. I then learned this "fight" was a bit more serious. One of the kids tried to explain it to me in Swahili. I was totally lost until I heard “magareza” which means “prison.” (Why I already knew that Swahili word of all other words is a whole other story). Anna may be in prison, it’s unclear. No one knows.
The story? Anna and her sister arrived at the local well around 5pm to fetch water. The government is in charge of opening the duct to the well and apparently they were taking their sweet little time that day; Anna and her sister were there until 9pm. Here are the undisputed facts: The line began to move and a girl around Anna’s age came and cut the line. She was told by many to go to the back, but refused.Anna took charge of demanding her to go to the back of the line at which point the unnamed girl took Anna’s bucket and threw it aside.Anna and her sister pushed the girl into the well…it’s a looooooooong drop. She hit her head and cracked it open in 2 places. She went to the hospital. All over water.
After Anna was done directing a scene at our workshop, the police came to pick her up. Mama Garroto, my supervisor, motioned to me when she saw the cops to grab Anna and bring her to them so that the other kids did not see their friend getting arrested. When we got to the police on the other side of the field, I saw the police car (a cattle car) to which they were about to chain Anna. Anna grabbed my upper arm and squeezed it tightly and slowly let her hand run across the length of my arm. She did not cry or fight. She proudly stepped up into the cattle car and allowed the officer to tie her to the side as the injured girl’s parents stood in the cattle car with her yelling at her. The officer had told Mama Garroto that they were just bringing her in for questioning and she would be out within the ½ hour. Mama Garruto assured me that the police were lying. I went back to the group and continued the session.
Immediately after the session, Mama Garroto, the principal, and I went to the holding cell to visit Anna. Baba Anna (Anna’s father), a 70ish year old man, was hobbling around outside the jail. We met with the guard for some questioning during which the guard asked Baba Annawhy he had not yet brought food there for her. He skirted the question. When you are in a holding cell before your hearing (up to 2+ days), the jail is under no obligation to feed you. Also, the police asked Baba if he had any money for them…that’s right: they frankly asked for a bribe to let her out. Apparently, Baba does not have food or money. Anna has been in charge of well, everything, since her mother abandoned the family some years ago. She is the soul financial provider for 4 children and Baba (and she failed out of school? Shocking!).
We got to see Anna and her sister who were both being held in solitary confinement, but were allowed out as the principal is a respected man in the community.
I did not sleep well that night. I still couldn’t believe it! All over water. Can you imagine seeing kids fight like this over water? They do when it’s this scarce. Water! Kids should not have to battle it out for water. Water! It was over water!
The next day we went back to the cell to bring food to the sisters. We were informed that Anna and her sister were at their hearing down the block. Anna was allowed out on bail. Bail in Tanzania: Someone has to sign that if you run before trial, he will take your place. When Anna walked out, I instinctively threw my arms around her. Her father did no such thing. He did not hug either of his daughters who had just spent about 12 hours in solitary confinement with no bathroom or anything. I did not understand, but I chocked it up to cultural gaps. As we walked down the block, I encouraged Anna and her sister, whom at this point have not eaten in over 24 hours, to eat on the way home.Anna told me that it’s impolite to eat in front of people who may be hungry and she would wait until she got home. Talk about self-discipline.
Anna came back to the group the very next day and did a play about what happened (her initiative). It was fantastic. Mama Gorruto invitedAnna to come work for her in her house where she could live until the trial date. When we left Kisarawe on Friday, we picked Anna up from her mud hut (see pictures below). Baba thanked Mama Garroto till no end, but did not hug Anna.
Why do I feel this way for Anna? I mean, she almost killed a girl! I do not deny for a second that she did something horrible and wrong and I know, although it saddens me, that she will go to prison for some time. I do not condone what she did, but I do have compassion for why she did it. Anna has had a harder life than I can fathom. Around age 11 she became a mother to her younger siblings and her much older father. She is malnourished and undereducated. She waits in long lines on a daily basis for water and sleeps on the floor in a house made out of mud with ants crawling all over her. There is no end in sight. The chick has a lot on her plate. She’s angry. She was going to snap. If it wasn’t pushing that girl down the well, it would have been something else. Also, Anna does something to you. She has this way about her. I mean, both Mama Garroto and I fell in love with her at 1st sight. She is disciplined and mature beyond her years. Anna is both the warmest and coldest person I have ever met."
Talia went back to visit Anna a number of times before returning to Israel. On the last day, Anna surprised Talia at Mama Garroto's where Talia was having lunch. She told (not asked) Talia to return for more street theater. Talia was so touched by Anna's story, she decided to make it a primary BamatMabat focus. Thus, it is called Project Anna.
"This 19 year old girl has changed my life. I arrived in the rural region of Kisarawe last Monday. Kisarawe is only 45 minutes outside of Dar es Salaam (the main city) but many of the inhabitants simply cannot afford the ~80 cent bus ticket. I met Anna that Monday morning (she thought the group started that day, but it started on Tuesday). Anna is petite at best, the size of a 12 year old, but she has presence. There’s something about her face, in her eyes possibly; when she walks into a room, you notice her. Anna appears rough and tough. She had a loop made out of this earthy colored string in place of a proper nose ring. I introduced myself (in Swahili) and she smiled: the warmest
smile you have ever seen.
Anna came to the group the next day and was just fabulous. She was extremely weary at 1st, but completely opened up within an hour. She quickly became one of the leaders in the group. I learned later that day that the kids in this group had failed out of school and were just totally lost in life. On Wednesday, Anna came late. I was told that she had gotten into a physical fight with someone the night before. I accepted this news with a grain of salt as I have worked with people who are violent before (in prisons and with ex-convicts and drug users). I figured: she’ll come when she comes. I then learned this "fight" was a bit more serious. One of the kids tried to explain it to me in Swahili. I was totally lost until I heard “magareza” which means “prison.” (Why I already knew that Swahili word of all other words is a whole other story). Anna may be in prison, it’s unclear. No one knows.
The story? Anna and her sister arrived at the local well around 5pm to fetch water. The government is in charge of opening the duct to the well and apparently they were taking their sweet little time that day; Anna and her sister were there until 9pm. Here are the undisputed facts: The line began to move and a girl around Anna’s age came and cut the line. She was told by many to go to the back, but refused.Anna took charge of demanding her to go to the back of the line at which point the unnamed girl took Anna’s bucket and threw it aside.Anna and her sister pushed the girl into the well…it’s a looooooooong drop. She hit her head and cracked it open in 2 places. She went to the hospital. All over water.
After Anna was done directing a scene at our workshop, the police came to pick her up. Mama Garroto, my supervisor, motioned to me when she saw the cops to grab Anna and bring her to them so that the other kids did not see their friend getting arrested. When we got to the police on the other side of the field, I saw the police car (a cattle car) to which they were about to chain Anna. Anna grabbed my upper arm and squeezed it tightly and slowly let her hand run across the length of my arm. She did not cry or fight. She proudly stepped up into the cattle car and allowed the officer to tie her to the side as the injured girl’s parents stood in the cattle car with her yelling at her. The officer had told Mama Garroto that they were just bringing her in for questioning and she would be out within the ½ hour. Mama Garruto assured me that the police were lying. I went back to the group and continued the session.
Immediately after the session, Mama Garroto, the principal, and I went to the holding cell to visit Anna. Baba Anna (Anna’s father), a 70ish year old man, was hobbling around outside the jail. We met with the guard for some questioning during which the guard asked Baba Annawhy he had not yet brought food there for her. He skirted the question. When you are in a holding cell before your hearing (up to 2+ days), the jail is under no obligation to feed you. Also, the police asked Baba if he had any money for them…that’s right: they frankly asked for a bribe to let her out. Apparently, Baba does not have food or money. Anna has been in charge of well, everything, since her mother abandoned the family some years ago. She is the soul financial provider for 4 children and Baba (and she failed out of school? Shocking!).
We got to see Anna and her sister who were both being held in solitary confinement, but were allowed out as the principal is a respected man in the community.
I did not sleep well that night. I still couldn’t believe it! All over water. Can you imagine seeing kids fight like this over water? They do when it’s this scarce. Water! Kids should not have to battle it out for water. Water! It was over water!
The next day we went back to the cell to bring food to the sisters. We were informed that Anna and her sister were at their hearing down the block. Anna was allowed out on bail. Bail in Tanzania: Someone has to sign that if you run before trial, he will take your place. When Anna walked out, I instinctively threw my arms around her. Her father did no such thing. He did not hug either of his daughters who had just spent about 12 hours in solitary confinement with no bathroom or anything. I did not understand, but I chocked it up to cultural gaps. As we walked down the block, I encouraged Anna and her sister, whom at this point have not eaten in over 24 hours, to eat on the way home.Anna told me that it’s impolite to eat in front of people who may be hungry and she would wait until she got home. Talk about self-discipline.
Anna came back to the group the very next day and did a play about what happened (her initiative). It was fantastic. Mama Gorruto invitedAnna to come work for her in her house where she could live until the trial date. When we left Kisarawe on Friday, we picked Anna up from her mud hut (see pictures below). Baba thanked Mama Garroto till no end, but did not hug Anna.
Why do I feel this way for Anna? I mean, she almost killed a girl! I do not deny for a second that she did something horrible and wrong and I know, although it saddens me, that she will go to prison for some time. I do not condone what she did, but I do have compassion for why she did it. Anna has had a harder life than I can fathom. Around age 11 she became a mother to her younger siblings and her much older father. She is malnourished and undereducated. She waits in long lines on a daily basis for water and sleeps on the floor in a house made out of mud with ants crawling all over her. There is no end in sight. The chick has a lot on her plate. She’s angry. She was going to snap. If it wasn’t pushing that girl down the well, it would have been something else. Also, Anna does something to you. She has this way about her. I mean, both Mama Garroto and I fell in love with her at 1st sight. She is disciplined and mature beyond her years. Anna is both the warmest and coldest person I have ever met."
Talia went back to visit Anna a number of times before returning to Israel. On the last day, Anna surprised Talia at Mama Garroto's where Talia was having lunch. She told (not asked) Talia to return for more street theater. Talia was so touched by Anna's story, she decided to make it a primary BamatMabat focus. Thus, it is called Project Anna.
Pictures of Anna's home. Please click for full size of the picture and caption.
