Acting Out Awareness: Camp for Youth Health Promoters
On August 28, 2011 I closed my last show with the Santa Fe Opera, and I have not been working in theatre since. For the last 3 years, I have been a Peace Corps Volunteer working within the extremely remote, impoverished indigenous reservations of Panama to improve personal and community health through education and infrastructure.
The work is hard, trying to convince an illiterate population that invisible bacteria will make you sick or mixing concrete in the tropical heat. At eight degrees off the equator, the sun is a whole different ball game. I've had my fair share of jungle illnesses and injuries. Yet for all the sweat and other unmentionable bodily fluids, I've loved every minute of it. Building relationships with community members, kids, and being adopted into another culture is an experience unlike any other. For every 1 thing I managed to teach them, they have imparted at least 10 things to me.
Pretty regularly our hammock conversations come around to, Amber, what do you do? What did you go to school for? What is your job?
Where to begin? How do I explain the magic of theatre, the joy of being a stage manager, or the creative process of the designer to a population that has never heard of the performing arts?
I'm a storyteller. I'm an architect. I make movies. I'm a project manager. I'm an artist. I'm a teacher. My answers vary, depending on the context and what response will have some kind of meaning to them.
Now, after 3 years, I finally have the opportunity to share the theatre with them, to show them another side to who I am and what it is that I really do. From June 1-5, an unlikely collaboration of Peace Corps Volunteers, the Panamanian Ministry of Health, and theatre professionals from the United States will come together to create Acting Out Awareness: Camp for Youth Health Promoters.
We will train 40 youth from some of the poorest communities in the country how to use theatre to promote health awareness about HIV, hand washing, and safe drinking water- three of the greatest threats these communities face each day.
However, for this camp to happen, we still need to raise $3,845.00 and we need to do so quickly- within the next 15 days- so that we can receive the funding in time for camp.
While HIV is not yet epidemic in Panama, the number of cases in this country have increased 500% in the last decade.
Every minute, 4 children under the age of 6 die from illnesses that could have been prevented with basic hand washing and access to clean water.
In addition to addressing important health concerns, this camp gives us a chance to empower teenagers through theatre games, performances, dance, and gives them an opportunity to stand up in front of their peers to tell their own story. For a whole week, these students will have a chance to just be kids- to learn, grow, and play. This truly is a once in a lifetime opportunity.
Please donate at the link below, in the name of Meredith Comnes, the Volunteer hosting the camp in her community. No donation is too small. Please help me share the magic of theatre with the youth who need it most.
Alto Caballero, the community hosting the camp has already donated $2,000 worth of materials and labor. This project has been my source of inspiration and hope throughout the past year and I am so excited to finally see it coming to life.
We are so close, please help us get the rest of the way!
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