Kenya
Vist the dance4life Kenya website here
dance4life Kenya visits Wofak!
 With two hundred young orphans at the Women Fighting AIDS in Kenya (Wofak) excited about dance4life, The children’s home runs a food programme that feeds 250 children infected or affected with HIV and AIDS. With the energy already building, the tour team had two interactive sessions with the enthusiastic youngsters at the orphanage. The morning session had ages 13-15, while the afternoon session catered for ages 16-18.
For two hours they danced and had fun with the moves that they found challenging at first, but learnt and performed with ease later.
The climax of the drill was during the free style which is a mixture of various Kenyan dances from the different languages that they are familiar with. Despite the heat from the sun, they learnt and performed the drill as people watched from the adjacent buildings, applauding and cheering. A puppet show was then used to explain the dance4life concept, explaining all the four components. Here the interest was sparked especially at the mention of act4life, where Mary, a young girl living positively remarked “I can’t wait to share what I will learn and help my friends understand me and my status.” A hilarious role play with an abstinence theme was performed using the puppets which involved the young audience. The responses from the discussion that followed were interesting as they even came up with solutions to the dilemma presented by the puppets. The team then summarized everything with a question and answer forum during which the peer educators had a chance to clarify facts regarding HIV and AIDS for the audience.
Kenya was one of the countries that started schools4life in 2006, with the heart connection tour and training for skills4life.
They were unable to organise the dance4life event on November 25th along with the other countries but they did host an event a week later on World AIDS Day, 1 December 2006, for more than 500 young people.
In 2007 a new NCO, Africa Alive! came on board and along with their partners Kwacha Afrika and Centre for the study of Adolescence (CSA) they have started schools4life in two major cities, Mombassa and Nairobi and will reach more than 4000 young people in ten schools.
In 2008, the program grew to 50 schools, reaching 8000 young people thought the heart connection tour and creating more than 4000 "agents of change"- young people who have completed the act4life and skills4life component of the program.
The 2008 dance4life event in Kenya will be at the Boma’s on 29th November, which is the home of Pop Idols East Africa, with 2500 agents of change in attendance. A pre-event was held in Mombasa for 20 schools with more than 800 participants showing of their talent and support as agents of change!
In 2008, the Kenyan program has grown, receiving support from organisations like Art Venture, Amref and Family Health International (FHI). Kenya was also selected to participate in the African reality show, Imagine Afrika! Where they showed contestants the dance4life drill.
dance4life wants to make sure that the Kenyan youth becomes HIV-free. Protection and awareness will make a future of HIV-free adults more realistic.
Do you want to contact us about dance4life in Kenya ?
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