By Rehan Khan Khushik
KARACHI: Theater a best to impart awareness on best hygiene practices to avert outbreak of diseases in taluka Johi of Dadu district in Sindh province.
Sujag Theater Group of Sujag Sansar Organization (SSO) with support of Water Aid Pakistan is extensively using theater on WASH in flood affected villages and Schools to educate the communities on best hygiene practices and check outbreak of the diseases generally caused due to unhygienic conditions.
Mashooque Birahmani, CEO, SSO says that the Theater is an interesting tool to impart awareness even on difficult and complicated themes, in easy to understand way. Theater is useful for educated, semiliterate and unlettered persons. The awareness shared through this tool is understood and retained for longer time. The impact on the audience is highly motivating and is largely practiced by majority of the participants.
Theater story starts and ends with song containing information on WASH and DRR. The highly popular character of Juggler is selected which imparts tips on hand washing and other personal hygiene practices in highly interesting and effective way.
“The experienced male and female charters present information on better use of the WASH facilities in school repaired with support of Water Aid Pakistan. The information on DRR and precautionary measures for impeding Future flood is also shared with the participants”. Adds Mashooque Birahmani
“The theater story is kept interactive from the start to end. The audience largely take part along with characters in demo on personal hygiene and better use of the WASH facilities provided in the schools” maintains Miss Roozena, an activate female member of theater group
SSO team is making utmost care for including both male and female in the theater activity. In selecting theater team, best efforts are made to keep gender balance in theater team. The theater story is liked by persons from all ages and all backgrounds
“The theater wonderfully conveyed the message in minutes which we could not have been imparted in months and years” commented Muhammad Ismail, Teacher, GBPS Lal Bux Lund
“I have learnt through magic of juggler in theater story that if I wash my hands with soap properly, I will never fell ill” said 11 year old girl student salma, from GBPs Lal Bux Lund
“In our religion Islam, the importance of hygiene is compared with half part of faith and theater has very finely explained it” said Molivi Talib, prayer leader religious leader in GBPs Ghulam Hussain Gadhi
“During theater story faces of the school children and women were radiated with smiles, besides getting information they enjoyed the entertaining information thus although for while it helped the participants to forget horrific memoires of the flood and trails and tribulation they faced during and after the flood
During the theater when flood senesce with precautionary measure was presented, one boy started crying.
In Another school when the same scene was presented a child put his fingers in his hears not to hear about the flood.
From these observation it became clear that the flood has higher traumatic effect on the population, particularly among children and women.
32 year old woman shouted when character of theater team warned about coming of heavy rain, saying ‘the same scene has happened with us when heavy rain came, one of our elder cried that this rain would bring heavy flood’. She said that the ‘theater story is our own real story’
One woman said that “before the arrival of the flood, the media District administration and rulers repeated that there is no risk of the flood. Thus we could not shift our assets to safer places and when contrary to the impression of downplaying flood threat, the high flood hit us suddenly we only were able to evacuate our family members. All our valuables, food grains and livestock including my previous Australian breed cow of PKR 300000 value were taken away by sudden dangerous force of the flood”