The characters in the play, E YA KEKELA, range from people, body parts to STIs. They are characters representing people, vaginas, STIs like gonorrea, syphilis and more.
Ghetto Artists has teamed up with ACHAP through the District Multi Sectoral Committee (DMSC).
Outreach Manager Phineas Botlhale says this programme is going to run the whole year.
"We are going to be running some edutainment sessions on STIs management, proper and consistent condom use in five catchment areas around Francistown," he said.
Botlhale says that E YA KEKELA is a production centred around two women, namely Doris and Mmata. He says that they are streets hawkers and earn their living through selling airtime and other wares.
"Doris is also engaging in sexual activities for extra cash. In this production Doris and Mmata's private parts are personified and they talk about the importance of prevention and STIs management," he says.
The parts basically complain about being mistreated and abused by their masters.
"The play is to show that by engaging in irresponsible sexual activities you are not only abusing yourself but you are abusing your body that cannot speak for itself," he added.
The members of Ghetto Artists are known in Francistown and surrounding areas for being active in community activities and partnering with non-profit making organisations to entertain and educate at the same time.
Through the years they have accumulated many awards the most recent being from the Botswana National Youth Council (BNYC) contribution in the fight against HIV/AIDS and youth development last year.
In 1997, 10 artists received a diploma award in Mozambique at the SADC Theatre festival.
Botlhale says they will not only perform E YA KEKELA on their tour.
"We have skits that we are going to be performing along side the feature presentation, E YA KEKELA. We have The Key which is about parent/child communication, we also have Bonang which is about correct and consistent condom use and PMTCT le Monna wa lelwapa le zooming in on men and their involvement on the PMTCT programme," he said. Bonang was shot and distributed by the Ministry of Health (MOH) and can be seen in hospitals and clinics while The Key was funded by African Youth Alliance.
The outreach manager says that this is their annual activity and every year they focus on something new.
"We specialise on enhancing our community, especially Francistown where there is a problem of STIs and the numbers are rising. We hope that by the end of this project we would have touched lives and changed behaviours. Francistown has been hit hard by the epidemic."
He says that this is a good way of trying to educate people because theatre is being recognised as the best tool for education because of its visual impact. He says that they are targeting out-of-school youth because they need to be empowered.
Botlhale further told Mmegi that they are supposed to have done 20 performances by the end of the year.
"We are targeting 2000 people with the skits and 6000 people for E YA KEKELA," he said.
Botlhale said that from June 14 to June 29 they would cover five areas. He says that after a few performances they will go to evaluation together with ACHAP to find out if they are making any impact. For the first round Ghetto Artists will perform at Area W, Bluetown, Donga, Monarch, Tatitown and Monarch customary courts.
