A multi award-winning charity is using art
to boost the self-esteem of vulnerable children in an Aids-hit South African
township and to teach UK youngsters about HIV
Words Amanda Elliot
Photos MADaboutART
When
MADaboutART visits UK schools, it uses a simple but effective device to challenge
HIV stigma. At the end of their arts-based workshops, they ask the youngsters
if they want to meet someone who is HIV positive.
Liz Brown, MAD’s director, explains: “The kids are always keen.
Larry (MAD’s chief executive) leaves the room to bring the person in
and then returns alone. Then the penny drops: the kids have already met and
worked alongside someone living with HIV and didn’t even realise.”
The MAD in MADaboutART stands for ‘Make a Difference’ and this
kind of teaching technique certainly seems to.
Uniting
kids through art
Few projects set up to fight HIV can claim to unite young people across two
continents, yet that is what MAD does. It uses art as an education and empowerment
tool in South African townships, helping kids affected by Aids, and raises
awareness in UK schools.
MAD is the brainchild of Larry Gurney, a former THT health promotion officer
and peer educator. In 2000 he developed the idea of combining art and narrative
therapy to teach kids. But he wanted to find a way to use these techniques
to help vulnerable kids in regions hardest hit by the epidemic.
In 2001 he teamed up with a group of close friends, including Liz Brown, then
a pharmaceutical company marketing executive, to find a way to realise his
dream.
Larry explains: “I’d worked in the HIV sector and knew I wanted
to do something meaningful with kids in a country where HIV was more prevalent.
I was interested in narrative and art therapy as tools for helping young people
improve their self-esteem and the two ideas came together so well.”
A frequent visitor to South Africa, Larry, 40, was all too aware of the growing
number of orphans and other vulnerable children affected by Aids there. Liz
said they were equally aware of what seemed to be a fatigue among people in
the UK for supporting traditional aid projects.
Fun and safe
“We wanted to do something different, to find a project to help these
kids to help themselves,” said Liz. It wasn’t hard to find the
right place to launch.
In 2003 in the Western Cape there were an estimated 1,800 HIV transmissions
among under-18s. HIV rates are high across all of the Western Cape, but MAD
chose Nekkies, a township outside Knysna, at the heart of the epidemic but
with a strong arts tradition. In Knysna, HIV prevalence runs at 20 per cent.
Larry said it “made sense on several levels” to set up in Nekkies.
“There are 5,000 children living in the township and most have been
affected by HIV in one way or another. Knysna is on the ‘Garden Route’
which has particularly high levels of HIV due to migration from the apartheid
homelands to Cape Town and nearby tourism.”
MAD teamed up with an existing arts empowerment project, Masizame; a Xhosa
word meaning ‘we try’. At Masizame they created a purpose-built
HIV arts and education centre running after-school clubs for kids.
More
than facts
Larry uses a quote from Benjamin Franklin to explain his educational philosophy
which is about getting kids to remember more than facts: “Tell me and
I forget; teach me and I may remember; involve me and I will learn.”
The charity uses interventions that avoid typical didactic teaching from the
front of the class, and instead engage and involve kids from the outset to
create and to think.
“In Nekkies there are thousands of kids but not much to do,” explains
Larry. “So at first they come to paint. But they also have many unanswered
questions and issues. Some have lost parents. At the clubs, kids and young
people aged 8-23 can learn about HIV and Aids and how to protect themselves
in a fun and safe environment.”
Through art, they encourage the children to express themselves and be more
open with others. This boosts self-esteem and gives them a sense of pride
and identity.
“If children get the mechanisms to deal with the emotions of a life
affected by Aids, they have a better chance to understand themselves and those
around them. In turn, their confidence levels increase and they look forward
to a future where they are in control of their own destiny,” he says.
Hero boxes and body maps
One of MAD’s most effective techniques is the ‘ME’ box,
a variation on the memory books used by some HIV positive Africans to pass
on information to families before they die.
“Memory boxes tend to emphasise the message ‘I’m going to
die’,” explains Larry. “We wanted to challenge this concept
and developed the ‘ME’ box that allowed kids to express who they
are and what they can do. These became ‘Hero Books’; a place where
kids could write about their strengths. Many are extremely moving and inspiring.
A set of MAD Hero Books have been exhibited in Europe, African, Asia and South
America. The kids also produce body maps; they draw around their bodies and
then build a visual autobiography of themselves, focusing on their strengths
and identities.”
Why it works
Larry says the expressional art has worked, with many of the Nekkies kids
returning to school after realising the importance of making positive choices.
The charity has also reached out to the wider community, running art competitions
involving local schools and libraries to promote better understanding of HIV.
One local exhibition saw more than 200 local school children attending MAD
educational workshops.
The organisation is training six ‘youth ambassadors’, peer educators
from the local community, to inspire and deliver HIV education to the kids.
These ambassadors are gradually taking over management and development of
the programme.
In UK schools, the team uses art made by the township kids as the starting
point for art-based workshops and discussion with young teens to teach them
to protect themselves and to promote better understanding of the global epidemic.
Reaching
out
Not surprisingly, the charity’s work has won awards and accolades from
the Red Cross, the international Aids Impact conference and the UKC. And on
World Aids Day last year, 13 MAD kids from Nekkies displayed their Rainbow
of Hope in Trafalgar Square. It’s now looking to the future, creating
satellite projects around the Western Cape and expanding work in UK schools.
Expansion of course depends on charitable and corporate funding, which comes
from a variety of donors. For this reason, the charity is run entirely by
volunteers.
Beatrice, a 24-year-old mother of one, is one of MAD’s six youth ambassadors.
She got involved after attending the clubs as a teenager. After undergoing
peer educator training, she and her fellow ambassadors run the day-to-day
activities in Nekkies while Larry and Liz focus on fundraising and organisational
development.
Last October, Beatrice came to the UK to train a group from Girl Guides in
how to make Hero Books. During her visit, she also helped Larry run workshops
with nine to 11-year-old kids in two primary schools, something she is extremely
proud of.
“I’m so happy to be part of all this. We show that the kids from
Nekkies can make a difference both at home and in the UK. England may be very
far away, but we can help open minds and make a positive contribution. We
are, together, part of a Rainbow Nation.”
• www.madaboutart.org
• info@madaboutart.org
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