Alertos da Vida

Alertos Da Vida is a community-based youth group of young people of Mozambican heritage living in Johannesburg. The group aims to provide information about such issues as HIV/AIDS, health, human rights and children's issues to Mozambicans living in the city. Working in Portuguese and Xhangana, the group uses edutainment including live theatre dramas, radio (dramas and spots) and music to provide this information.

Projects have included the following.

• Tenho dos Factos Antes de Ir (Get the Facts Before you Go!) - CMFD Productions and the Alertos da Vida group produced a series of short radio spots on human trafficking awareness for The International Organization for Migration. After discussions and role-plays on human trafficking and how it specifically affects young women, the group created, wrote, translated and voiced several public service announcements. Written as a mini-drama, each announcement looks at a different situation, and is designed to encourage people to get as many facts as they can before they decide to leave home. The dramas include instances where a domestic worker is forced to have sex with her boss, women promised modelling opportunities are sold into the sex industry, and a young farm worker is denied his promised pay and must return to Mozambique with nothing. The spots were produced for distribution to radio stations in Mozambique, and were officially launched in October 2005.
• 45 Minutos Para Alertar (45 Minutes to Alert) - Alertos da Vida’s first live performance theatre play deals with HIV/AIDS awareness and the importance of safer sex and condom use. Prior to writing the script, the group conducted field research within the Mozambican community to find out what the major issues and concerns were. This research was used to inform the messages in the play, which was written and workshopped by the group members, and has been performed at community venues in Johannesburg’s Portuguese neighbourhood.

After a brief hiatus, the group has reformed and is currently (August 2006) working on a second theatre production in collaboration with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), focusing on human trafficking and women's rights within the context of migration. The play will be workshopped with the actors and key stakeholders to ensure the issues and situations are accurate and will use a combination of Portuguese, English and Xhangana. It will be performed during the 16 Days of Activism at community venues in areas of Johannesburg and surrounds where there is a high Mozambican population.

HIV/AIDS, Health, Rights

The group was formed based on the belief that the thousands of Mozambicans immigrating to South Africa looking for work, who are able to speak little or no English, and only enough Zulu or other South African language to get by from a day to day basis, are not being reached by HIV/AIDS or rights campaigns and initiatives as a result of the language barrier. In addition, due to economic conditions within the country, many Mozambicans enter the country illegally. Often, they end up in exploitative working situations that may put them at a higher risk of HIV infection and human rights abuses than the majority of the South African working population.