Country:
Funding:
UGX 18,000,000
Ownership:
Initiative is owned by the members
Status:
Product testing on-going
Strategic Focus:
User friendly You Change Skits on Gender based violence
Target Beneficiaries:
Community members
Type of Solution:

A music dance and drama group which creates ‘’you-change skits’’ that help young women, adolescent girls and young people affected by conflict in refugee and host communities access user friendly information on the causes, prevention and strategies to end gender based violence through audio/visual context appropriate customer inclusive, educative and entertaining short plays.

Introduction

Platform 503’s You Change Skits will help  young adolescents, teenage mothers and community members who want to access information on causes, effects and ways of preventing GBV by introducing informative, family friendly, fun packed short video clips/live drama on GBV and increasing awareness thus reducing cases of GBV in communities.

Platform 503 intends to  promote behaviour change among young people and communities by providing access to relevant information on gender based violence and support services for GBV victims, through user friendly You Change Skits there by reducing the high cases of GBV in refugee settlements and host districts.

Ketura , a 19 year old teenage mother living in imvepi refugee settlement is always beaten by her husband. Currently radio pacis plays audio drama in Lugbarati a language keturah and her man do not understand. But if we run an informative, fun packed , short video clips / live drama  campaign in different local languages spoken and understood in west nile , then we will increase awareness on GBV to a larger number of people and reduce cases of GBV in refugee /host  communities.

Progress and Results

The team has documented and recorded a series of you change skit on the causes and prevention of GBV. The feedback from the experiments has been incorporated into the skit and played again to potential referral partners for their approval.

  1. a)Needs Assessment: The conducted a discovery on the effectiveness of the You Change Skits among key stakeholders in  Imvepi Refugee Settlement and Logiri Sub county in Arua district. The outcomes included Most cases that were highlighted by the community were attributed to alcohol and drug abuse; Only a few women could openly speak about their own personal experiences with GBV; The Aruba culture prohibits GBV reporting hence victims are afraid to break the cultural norm & Forced marriages are one of the leading causes of men being abusive towards the women.
  2. Experiment on using a cinema hall and open community centre to drive action among survivors: This experiment was to test whether playing you change skits in cinema halls will lead to increased access to information and referral services in the community
  3. Partnership with referral actors due to the messaging in the community: The purpose of this experiment was to discover whether the messaging in the you change skits can enable building referral partnerships in the community
  4. Mainstream and community radio as a channel of broadcasting You Change Skits: The purpose of this experiment was to discover if playing themed You Change Skits audio productions on gender based violence will lead to
  5. Increased access to GBV related information; Increased referral services for survivors in the community on GBV cases; Reduction in GBV cases

Challenges and Lessons Learnt

From the experiments, it came to light that some of the participants required immediate professional counselling; many community members (Elders, children) are affected by GBV; the community was more open to speak about their personal experiences with GBV after the skits; Music plays a big role in capturing the attention of the community; some cases can be avoided if there is less confrontation between spouses; the community was excited by the creative approach of the team and it was more responsive to the influencers compared to local leaders.

The team still needs to figure out how to differentiate their work from existing similar initiatives like like Reach A Hand's edutainment shows; form partnerships with police, GBV organisations to address referral issues during outreaches; Expand the content of the skits to address other issues of prevention and access to GBV services as well as Changing skit prototype based on community feedback