Rising Voices grantee Repacted got press recently. Its co-founder Dennis Kimambo was featured recently in the BBC pods and blogs podcast. In this interview Dennis talked about training local communities to blog and how this helps the communities to tackle the spread of HIV/AIDS. [Download the Interview in mp3 format from here (3.21MB)]

Earlier MTV Staying Alive Foundation published a video on the works of Repacted. From their website:

At the moment they are paying particular attention to youth in prisons and sex workers – both of which are high risk groups.

They are training 75 ‘change agents’ (peer educators), organizing 3 youth symposiums, along with 11 community theatre outreach groups – complete with mobile testing units,

As if this weren't enough to keep co-founders Dennis and Collins busy, they're also creating and distributing a monthly magazine, establishing a support group and organising monthly life skills demonstration forums.

Recently the other co-founder Collins Odu Oduor published an update of the project detailing all the works it had done since 2001:

REPACTED’s work is unique in that it involves the community in coming up with solutions to the issues they face. We do this through the use of community theatre, in a method better known as “Magnet Theatre”. This method starts with tailor made community folk media mobilization techniques that pulls the audience to the magnet theatre site and enlists the audience in an active interactive discussion through a scripted performance designed to provoke the target audience’s feelings, attitudes and beliefs with an aim of inspiring positive behavior change.

Since 2005 REPACTED has been conducting theatre for development outreaches in the Adventist Relief and Development Agency, Abstinence and Behavior change for the youth project in two districts. REPACTED is a MTV Staying Alive Foundation two time award winner, the award is aimed at reaching youth in the Community, special learning institutions and Prisons with Magnet Theatre Outreaches and mobile VCT. Citizens’ Media Outreach is a project involving the community in video and photo blogging inclusive of basic computer skills. Funded by Rising global Voices, the project involves the training of community members in the use of information and communication technologies.

Here is a presentation showing the works of the Repacted project:

Now let us look what the Repacted bloggers are saying:

Collins Otieno Sailas informs:

Dancing stigma related to HIV\AIDS is a dance conveying a message to the community trying to educate on how to live with those people who are affected with the disease by loving, caring and excepting them back to the community because they are our brothers and sisters. Sawwa dancers are the ones staging the show at Nakuru players theater in October and after that we will take the stigma dance to various schools.

Eric Wanyama, an aspiring script and film director, who has managed to write his own script, discusses about his work:

Captive is a screenplay of a short film that fictionally poses a question on the fate and security of orphaned children. [..]

I have written the screenplay and together with REPACTED-Kenya, we would like to make the project a reality. The REPACTED-Kenya Members are ready to participate as the cast in the production together with other various members of the Nakuru Players Theater.

Eric also asks the readers for support of this project by monetary or other means.

Collins Odu informed recently:

Preparing for 2009 Mr. and Miss Red Ribbon. It will be better than the past events. We welcome all support from well wishers so as to meet the budget and continue fighting stigma and discrimination in the community. It is only through leadership that we can address societal and communal problems. Let us join hands and take the lead.

Images taken from Repacted Facebook group.

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