Sunday, Jan 30, 2005
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Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary | New Delhi
By Mandira Nayar
NEW DELHI, JAN. 29. It might not be the conventional way to spell the acronym of the dreaded disease, but for these young children it is right -- Awareness is Definitely Safe (AIDS). Working on a project sponsored by UNESCO Paris, the street-kids from Salaam Baalak Trust have a new job -- using puppets to spread awareness about AIDS and drugs. Taking to the streets once again, this time to spread awareness, the Salaam Baalak Trust together with the Ishara Puppet Theatre Trust will be working on puppet shows with a message. "Salaam Baalak has a puppet theatre programme and there was a group that went to Sweden. This project will give the kids a chance to have a vocation and will be funded for sometime,'' stated the founder Ishara Puppet Theatre Trust, Dadi Pudumjee. While the Salaam Baalak Trust tested the waters at the recent Ishara Puppet Theatre Festival with a play, the aim is to spread the message beyond just small auditoriums. "These kids will hopefully take the plays to schools and different parts of the city. They will be doing about two plays a week, so it is a full time job really,'' he stated. While the plays are about a message, the grant also allows this form of art that is currently under threat, a chance to keep alive. Besides training young children in a vocation, UNESCO's grant also demands that the project be documented, so that the experiences from India can be used elsewhere. "Puppets can be used for educational use as well as for education. There have been many proposals to incorporate them in school curriculum, but nothing has come of it. Since the grant demands that these kids should go around spreading the message and ensures that they keep busy, it gives them employment as puppeteers, which is important. We have done a workshop with Salaam Balaak kids before. Some of the kids we trained have now started training others,'' he added. Working to train more children so that they can start learning about puppets, the project also gives these children a chance to be creative for a cause. Involved in the whole process of puppetry, they learn the secrets like using the seeds of tamarind in their puppets from the masters. Experts in their own field, they now create puppets for others. "I have been making puppets for a while,'' said Sameer, busy painting the hands of a puppet. "First we never liked to say that we were from Salaam Balaak, but once we grew up and realised what it has given us, I am proud to be from there,'' he stated with a smile.
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