The OYO dance troupe is the first and currently only troupe in Namibia employing young Namibians as performers. It is a project of OYO, a local NGO. The troupe creates pieces of physical theatre addressing issues such as HIV, teenage pregnancy, gender-based violence. Since March 2020, its operations have been affected by the COVID19 pandemic. We need your support to continue create, record and share short pieces to address teenage pregnancy, GBV and mental health issues relating to COVID19.
Since the beginning of COVID19 it is much more difficult to reach teenagers in schools and communities with educational messages, due to ever changing and often strict regulations. Yet since last year we observe an increase in teenage pregnancy (more than 3 times the numbers from previous years) and school dropout. There is an urgent need to develop material for teenagers using a medium they relate to (dance) to curb those problems.
Since the beginning of the pandemic the troupe has developed new techniques to devise simple, easy to understand pieces that are recorded. Each piece is 3 to 5 minutes long and has one strong message 'don't fall pregnant during the lockdown' or 'COVID19 is no excuse for GBV'. The clips are shared on social media and broadcast on our local TV channel. They are followed by contact for the OYO counselling line. This microproject will help the troupe to continue reaching young people.
The project will reach over 15,000 teenagers (social media and TV). By appealing to their emotions and not their intellect, we encourage them to reflect on their lives and find solutions that work for them. We let teenagers know they are not alone, even if we can't meet with them physically anymore. We provide information about a counselling line. This helps them reach out for support as early as possible.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
