Zurich, Rangoon, The World
9 December 2011
Pan's world-wide contacts and work continued in November-December with visits from the British Council Global Changemakers, Theatre for Development training in Burma around reproductive health issues and an exciting workshop for Swiss dancers and choreographers to learn new approaches to social change work.
Pan's fourth Theatre for Development visit to Burma/Myanmar (previously for FCO and UNDP) was for the British Council in a collaboration with Association Francois Xavier Bagnoud (AFXB). Issues of Reproductive Health in Burma are of huge consequence, from a high incidence of HIV/AIDS and other STDs, poor pre-natal care and nutrition, poor delivery conditions and unsafe illegal abortions. To combat these we trained 8 trainers in how to create plays which will highlight the issues and begin a debate about how to avoid the problems. They drew from their own stories and experiences and created a play for World AIDS day which was performed for 700 people in Rangoon. They will now train 30 peers from disadvantaged communities and form four theatre units to present plays, run workshops and start debates about how people can re-think their actions, make different decisions and enjoy healthier futures. By March 2012 they will have performed to 7000 people and run follow up sessions to track changes in attitude and behaviour.
In Zurich we conducted a workshop for dancers and choreographers who face challenges working with marginalised groups or disaffected youth , or who wish to develop their skills in this direction. This was very challenging for people from the dance world to think outside of their normal"box", but became a terrific springboard for rethinking what can be done through the body when participants are empowered to see all their physical presence as dance.
Pan was delighted to be chosen as a target organisation for the British Council Global Changemakers to visit during their annual youth summit. A group of inspiring young people from across the world took part in our workshop, saw our videos, met our participants and engaged in lively discussion.