Rehearsing our activism ...
The world over, our shared concerns for children are the same: safety, a caring environment, education and health.
In the taxi ride over to my first workshop in Hanoi, Vietnam, a flash of doubt crossed my mind. I wondered if this theatre for vocal empowerment was a stupid idea so far from home, if my ideas and intentions would even translate. This setting was polar opposite to my own as it possibly could be—a communist country, on the other side of the world, vastly different cultural history, and a country with which my own nation had been at war in recent decades. But an hour into the workshop at the STD/HIV/AIDS Prevention Center downtown Hanoi, I felt right at home among mothers and others, who, like me, cared passionately about social justice issues facing children and their families. Here, again, were people willing to rehearse advocating on behalf of the world’s children.
One male college student wanted to work with children whose parents were sick with AIDS. We acted out a skit in which he visited a home and talked to the two little girls. The two college students acting as the girls were very resistant to trusting him, and the group decided he should only visit the home when the father is home. We reenacted the scene with the father home and then he successfully made arrangements to help the daughters.
Another young woman who was studying to become a teacher wanted to teach children about their rights, about how they should be treated, since she was very concerned about child abuse. Together we rehearsed her leading a class of students in a game that actively taught them what was “okay” treatment and what was not. She spoke about how as a teacher she will have a very important position in the lives of children and their parents.
