Village Drama against Malaria

Before the project began, team members from from MORU met with 10 different village leaders in rural areas of Cambodia to discuss the sort of entertainment that villagers would enjoy and to seek advice from village leaders on what was popular. Following these consultations, and having tried other mediums like video screenings in the past, the medium of drama was chosen. At each of the 20 locations, a local drama group worked with the local health department to create scripts relevant to the villages. Prior to each performance, a 2-day workshop was held at the school with young people from the village to gather local stories about malaria and give local people the confidence and skills needed to perform on stage. During the workshops, villagers contributed performance talents, knowledge, and real local stories which were incorporated into the drama. All villagers and local authorities were then invited on the third day for a performance with music, karaoke, short health talks, games, and drama.

In June 2016, the initiative held its first performance in O Treng (Reed River), a remote rural Cambodian village that suffers from high incidents of malaria. Over 200 people, more than half the village, attended the performance, which featured 5 village singers and primary school children dressed as mosquitoes singing a song about malaria. The 3 key messages of the drama were to encourage people to prevent mosquito bites by using insecticide treated nets (ITNs), to get early diagnosis and treatment from the village malaria workers, and to raise awareness about the risk of malaria in local forests. The project engaged with all villagers across age, gender, and employment but with a specific aim towards reaching forest workers (who are mainly young men) and mobile and migrant populations. These groups are most at risk of malaria, and they are also the hardest-to-reach population.

DVDs of the drama were created to share with each the villages.

Malaria

In terms of challenges and solutions, the project took place from June to September, which coincided with the rainy season. Due to poor infrastructure, roads became muddy and impossible to drive on during this period, and bridges connecting villages were prone to collapse. This caused significant disruption to travel plans, meaning the team could not proceed as scheduled and that a degree of flexibility had to be built into the plans. There was also an added time pressure in having to visit 20 villages in such a short time period. The team had a limited budget, with only a small truck to transport everything including team members, props, clothes, a canopy, the stage and more. In terms of evaluation, the language barrier was the most important challenge; the team's evaluators from Bangkok went in to conduct the interviews in Khmer with help of a translator. (A project evaluation is forthcoming).

Organisers say that, despite these challenges, the project was deemed a success. Across the 20 villages, an average of 66% of village inhabitants participated. Interviews with villagers also showed an improved knowledge of malaria and increased motivation to eliminate it. "We established trust and good relationship with local authorities, local leaders, local healthcare staff, village malaria workers and villagers which not only enhanced this project but will make it easier to explain the purpose of community engagement and malaria studies in these regions in the future."