Building sustainable improvements in gender equality for youth through creative engagement in Uganda

这一项目将以普拉斯托在乌干达进行的以前的研究(见相关项目)为基础，该研究不仅显示了与性别不平等有关的严重问题，包括家庭暴力、遗弃儿童、嘲弄月经女孩、强迫性行为，而且表明，在参与以艺术为基础的对话方法的方案时，男性和女性都愿意改变他们的观点和行为。这一后续项目是专门为响应年轻人、教师、公共卫生专业人员和社区成员反复提出的要求而制定的，即在此基础上开展和扩大这项工作，以进一步促进两性平等，并挑战许多关于预期男女行为以及性健康和生殖健康方面的错误信息的破坏性的本质主义迷思。以前的工作集中在津贾市贫民窟瓦卢库巴/马塞塞的学校，利用与13-16岁年轻人举行的以艺术为基础的讲习班，讨论性健康和生殖健康问题。结果发现，这项工作不仅产生了显著的影响--见支持案例--而且关于性别关系的讨论导致了个人、家庭和学校社区的重大变化，人们认为这些变化极大地促进了良好、尊重的性别关系。这个项目将优先促进平等的性别关系，同时继续促进对月经、性关系和个人卫生等SRH问题的了解，这些问题都是更大问题的一部分，但将扩大工作，使整个津贾的青年能够参与并长期受益。我们的对话、基于艺术的实践，包括使用戏剧、电影、舞蹈、诗歌和艺术，被发现非常吸引人(见支持案例)，鼓励创造力、批判性思维和享受一个经常具有挑战性的开放新思维的过程。因此，我们将推广这一方法。在全市36所学校工作；首先，通过表演/工作坊，让年轻人思考他们可能渴望的性别刻板印象、社会规范和理想，然后我们将邀请来自全市的200名年轻人参加为期10天的2个(每个100人)多艺术工作坊，这些工作坊将结合性别意识参与与使用戏剧、电影、传统和霹雳舞、诗歌、流行音乐和美术的艺术作品的培训和创作，以刺激全市青年艺术的创造性参与。第三个工作坊将吸引前几个工作坊中的50名年轻人参加，并以同样的形式工作，使他们能够从受训者转变为自己艺术作品的实现者，这将在全市的津佳青年艺术节上达到高潮，年轻人被邀请聚集在一起，以性别平等为主题展示他们的创造力。这些作品将以各种方式持久存在：公共墙上的壁画；流行歌曲将在当地电台录制和播放；电影、戏剧、舞蹈和诗歌将在社交媒体上展出和发布。为支持以青年为中心的活动，我们还将应许多要求，为关注青少年健康的教师和公共卫生工作者提供为期两天的培训讲习班，以帮助他们支持性别平等和交流开放，并支持城市青年。所有工作都是根据社区的要求而设计的，并将以进一步的研究研讨会为基础，这样我们就可以确保我们对当地的具体需求做出了最有用的反应。这件艺术作品的设计是由乌干达和国际艺术家组成的坚定团队精心策划的，他们近年来都与普拉斯托合作过相关项目，都是各自领域的领导者，特别是舞蹈和流行音乐榜样，他们在之前的项目中与普拉斯托合作，建立了专业的创作生涯。

This project will build on previous research conducted by Plastow in Uganda (see related projects) that has demonstrated not only severe issues related to gender inequalities including domestic violence; abandonment of children; mockery of menstruating girls; coercive sexual behaviours; but also that when engaged in programmes using arts-based, dialogic methodologies both males and females have been open to changing their views and their behaviours. This Follow-On project has been developed specifically to respond to repeated requests by young people, teachers and public health professionals and community members, that this work be built on and extended to further promote gender equality and to challenge many of the damaging essentialist myths about expected male and female behaviours and misinformation in relation to sexual and reproductive health (SRH).Previous work centred on schools in the slum district of the city of Jinja called Walukuba/Masese using arts-based workshops with young people aged 13-16 to discuss issues of SRH. It was found that not only did this work have a notable impact - see Case for Support - but that discussions arising about gender relations led to significant changes in individuals, families and school communities that were perceived to be significantly promoting good, respectful gender relations. This project will privilege the promotion of equitable gender relations, while continuing to promote understanding of SRH issues such as menstruation, sexual relationships and personal hygiene which all form part of the larger issue, but will extend the work to enable youth across Jinja to take part and sustainably benefit over the long term.Our dialogic, arts-based practice, including the use of theatre, film, dance, poetry and art was found to be highly engaging (see Case for Support), encouraging creativity, critical thinking and enjoyment of an often challenging process of opening up to new thinking. We will therefore extend this methodology. Working in 36 schools across the city; first through performance/workshops engaging young people in considering gender stereotypes, social norms and ideals they might aspire to, we will go on to invite 200 young people from across the city to take part in 2 (100 people each) 10-day multi-arts workshops which will combine gender awareness engagement with training in and creation of artworks using theatre, film, traditional and breakdance, poetry, pop music and fine art to stimulate a creative city-wide youth arts involvement. A third workshop will take 50 young people from each of the preceding workshops and work in the same forms to enable them to move from becoming trainees to realisers of their own art works, and this will culminate in a city-wide Jinja Youth Arts Festival where young people are invited to come together to profile their creativity on the theme of gender equality. These works will have a lasting presence in various ways: murals on public walls; pop songs will be recorded and played on local radio; film, theatre, dance and poetry will be exhibited and also released on social media.In support of youth-centred activity we will also, again as a result of many requests, provide 2-day training workshops for teachers and public health workers concerned with adolescent health, to assist them in supporting gender equality and openness in communication and support for the youth of the city. All work has been designed in response to community requests and will be based on further research workshops so that we can be sure we responding most usefully to specific local needs. The design of the artistic work has been carefully planned by a committed team of Ugandan and international artists who have all worked on related projects in recent years with Plastow and are leaders in their fields, including notably dance and pop music role models who have established professional creative careers on the back of working with Plastow in previous projects.