Village Theatre - An effective communication strategy for the promotion of small-holder poultry rearing

As evening fell in the village of Joira, District Manikganj in early February, the community started congregating together, expectantly waiting for the show to begin. During the day, staff of BRAC’s Social Development Programme had informed regarding the staging of play in their village on poultry rearing.

Over the next hour, the community was completely engrossed in the proceedings of the play, enacted by community representatives, trained by BRAC. The powerful script highlighted problems faced by the community in making ends meet and the potential of back-yard poultry rearing as an effective livelihood option.

Village theatre as a communication strategy has been used by BRAC since 1998, and has now spread to over 61 districts of the country with the active involvement of a trained cadre of community artists comprising 2534 men and 1086 women, organized in 362 theatre groups.

Over 500 different issues have been scripted and performed by the village artists on various social, economic, environmental and health concerns. Performances are staged even in interior villages, with simple props and equipment available in the village itself. In addition to playing a vital role in raising awareness of rural communities they tend to build a spirit of unity among the villagers to collectively address social injustice and exploitation and also identify possible livelihood options.

The script is designed to reinforce and build on local culture and traditions while highlighting existing social problems and possible solutions.  A key objective followed while developing the script is to facilitate women’s participation in decision making and subsequent field interventions. It is for this reason that the theatre is performed at a time convenient for women and children to attend and participate actively.

The impact made by the village theatre is further reinforced by conducting a community meeting on the day following the show, at the same location. The issues addressed / enacted during the play are debated to seek the inputs of villagers and the existence of similar problems in the area. BRAC staff has observed that the sensitization through the theatre performance, contributes to a community commitment to resolve existing social problems. In addition, the carefully designed screenplays that build upon and respect local traditions, contribute to increased participation and involvement of women in both community meetings and implementation of activities, and over time to greater empowerment of women.

Contributed by - SA PPLPP Coordination team with inputs from BRAC, Bangladesh