SSACS presents best display of AIDS awareness literature at national workshop

SIKKIM FOLK PERFORMERS COME IN THIRD IN ‘FOLK MEDIA’ COMPETITION
GANGTOK, 15 April: A four-day national workshop of state folk artists for “Standardizing Scripts, Folk Performances and Developing State/ Regional Resources” at the National Institute of Health and Family Welfare (NIHFW), New Delhi was organized by National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) in association with Family Health International and AIDS Prevention and Control Project from 05 to 08 April. Sikkim secured the 1st position in the “Display of HIV/AIDS IEC materials & photograph exhibition” competition and 3rd in the ‘Folk media’ competition, informs a press release.
The Sikkim troupe performed a fusion of Lok Dohori and drama in the ‘Folk Media’ category which was much appreciated by authorities from NACO, UN AIDS and APAC, the release informs. Sikkim was represented by a team comprising of AD/ Doc & Pub, Lubhana Rai, Consultant Youth Affairs SSACS, Chung Chungla Bhutia, Norden Lepcha and Gayatri Rai from the Song & Drama Unit [Culture Department], and artists, Uttam Rai, Pirtha Rai, Chandra Chettri, Ranjana Manger and Anita Manger [Kala Kunj Natya Sadan, Sakyong, West Sikkim].

Folk is a powerful medium of communication to disseminate social messages in rural areas. Integration of messages with local culture helps rural people relate and respond easily. In order to ensure effective and efficient utilization of folk media to disseminate HIV/AIDS messages, it was realized that there is a need to standardize the scripts and performances so that the messages going to the people are correct and quality of performances is ensured. Keeping these objectives in mind, NACO organized National Level Workshops where resource persons and folk artists belonging to popular folk forms of different states were trained. During the workshop, resource persons along with the artists wrote the scripts which were reviewed and vetted by technical experts, the release informs.
In Sikkim, folk media performances were initiated in 2010 with the inauguration of “IEC Mobile Van” by Chief Minister Pawan Chamling on 22 February 2010. Since then, Sikkim State AIDS Control Society has conducted campaigns in all districts using local folk forms.