Watu Wa Watu (People Serve People)

Watu Wa Watu shapes its communication strategies around principles such as unity, commitment (people serve people), participation (volunteering), transparency), relationship-building and mutual respect, and dignity and freedom. Examples of specific activities that are infused with these principles include:

• sensitising and mobilising various individuals, groups, communities, tribes, and their leaders (e.g., Masia and Sukuma);
• integrating health professionals and other skilled members of the community to: promote and foster community engagement, form peer groups, organise formal adult education and HIV programmes, and design and implement policies supporting the fight against AIDS;
• training facilitators through workshops and seminars;
• drawing on the arts - e.g., local dance, performance and theatre groups - both as live performances and as video presentations during educational sessions;
• producing local teaching materials such as videos - "from people to people";
• building meeting information centres for members of Watu Wa Watu and their communities;
• collaborating with local tribes, local village leaders, schools, churches, hospital, and other organisations and governmental structures to find effective ways to tackle the HIV/AIDS epidemic together and respond in a more effective and coordinated way.

Specifically, as a first step, different tribes and groups of communities were visited and interviewed and videotaped about their needs and concerns related to HIV/AIDS. Realising their openness and eagerness to be provided with basic information about the disease, organisers held spontaneous speeches and discussions about HIV/AIDS issues in both public and social institutions. Written information was also sent to key stakeholders such as teachers, youth, priests, and village and tribal leaders. Simultaneously, artists like painters, ngoma (drums and song), and performance and drama groups in the region gathered together in order to design a sensitisation festival.

Planning and organisation for this festival was based on a participatory approach and reflected a focus on community involvement. It was facilitated by a Watu Wa Watu HIV/AIDS committee that consisted of leaders of women's, youth, artist and football groups. The first festival took place on August 7 2005 on the grounds of Nawigo Primary School at Malinyi. More than 2,000 people came to listen and learn about the biological, medical, and socio-cultural dimension of the disease. The festival programme included speeches from HIV/AIDS activists and group leaders, as well as various artistic performances and performances by schoolchildren. Peer condom demonstrators and distributors for selected young people supported the teaching sessions between artistic performances. An arts gallery was open to visitors.

The entire event was documented by video and photographs, which are being used to serve the communities as learning and teaching materials.

During the evaluation of the festival, plans emerged to create a common network of information and communication among interested individuals and groups inside the country and across the border. Watu Wa Watu members and youth leaders agreed to create a regular forum of discussion and dialogue at Marangu Water Falls Kinukamori, Kilimanjaro. It is hoped this approach will foster coordination of future events, such as festivals, seminars, workshops, and conferences. Organisers believe that this strategy will also ensure meaningful collaborations and networking with other grassroots movements - as well as with local, national, and international friends and partners - in order to enhance social mobilisation related to HIV/AIDS in Tanzania.

HIV/AIDS.

Watu Wa Watu started when a local doctor working at Lugala Lutheran Hospital in Mailinyi invited international friends and activists to visit Tanzania in order to communicate to them the devastating impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the area. During this first visit, which took place in the winter of 2004, participants conducted an analysis which revealed that an estimated 10% of the population was HIV/AIDS-infected. Also, this physician shared the fact that, in the past, no sensitisation of the community had taken place.

Organisers say that the community they are seeking to address consists of various tribes spread in many villages across the region with different socio-cultural backgrounds and religious beliefs/denominations.

Some of Watu Wa Watu’s future plans include:

• 'The Chagga Mirror' - an artistic documentation about Chagga culture and history in the context of HIV/AIDS;
• 'Kumbukumbu' - an internet memorial for those living with AIDS, and those who support them, around the world;
• Information centres at Malinyi and Marangu Waterfalls Kinukamori; and
• An arts and handicraft shop to support income-generating activities in economically poor communities.