Focus Media (Kigali)
Rodrigue Rwirahira
10 January 2009
'Scenarios from Africa,' a continental writing competition, has been held for the first time in the country. None of the Rwandan contestants made it to the final.
Scenarios from Africa is a community mobilization, education and media process designed to improve the lives of those infected and affected by HIV/AIDS, and reduce HIV prevalence. It involves the production of short fiction films, radio shows and other communication resources about HIV/AIDS based on ideas thought up by young people in international contests.
The contest was first launched in 1997 in Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal. Today, the Scenarios process and products reach across sub-Saharan Africa and are also increasingly used by organizations serving African refugees and immigrants in Europe and North America.
More than 105,000 young people from 37 African countries have taken part in the five Scenarios from Africa contests held to date (1997, 2000, 2002, 2005 and 2008; it was supposed to be held every two years). Rwanda participated for the first time this year.
The main theme of Scenarios 2008 was to reduce stigma, rejection and discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS pandemic, increasing young Africans' ability to reduce their risk of infection, increasing local capacity for effective HIV/AIDS education and increasing public understanding of the epidemic and the way it affects people and society.
In Rwanda, the contest was organized by RAP/SIDA project (Rwandans and Americans in Partnership) together with various youth associations such as Angels of the Light Generation, Maison des Jeunes de Kimisagara( MJK).
According to Jones Frank Sayinzoga, the legal representative of the Angels association which is located in Kicukiro, said that it is a youth organization aimed at giving support to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, especially by disseminating messages to prevent HIV/AIDS, ensuring youth's reproductive health education, tolerance, conflict resolution, human rights, peace and reconciliation through scenic activities that involves; music, dance, songs, poetry, drama, etc.
He remarks that the association currently receives more than 200 youth coming from the three districts of the Kigali City for weekly activities. "We took advantage of the fact that we are in contact with a big number of young people to make them participate in the Scenarios from Africa competition and test their knowledge on HIV/AIDS, and they really performed well".
No Rwandan finalists
Alice Kayibanda, the Scenarios from Africa coordinator in Rwanda, agrees that the competition was successful, because it achieved its objectives such as making people aware of the pandemic and the stigma reduction.
"We received over 2,000 entries at the national level, which had to compete for the top 20, which were in turn eligible for the final at the African level, where there are 30 contestants from all over the continent. Unfortunately, nobody went through to the final, because the first Rwandan scenario came at the 32nd place in Africa," Kayibanda says.
That scenario was written by Olivier Ndikumana, who had thought of increasing his chances by writing in French, because the final takes place in Burkina Faso. It wasn't to be.
"To be honest, our scenarios were nothing much compared to those of contestants from other countries-it was like they had had training in writing scenarios," Ndikumana explains. "But we believe that next time we will be able to distinguish ourselves."
Betty Ndayisaba, for her part, was very happy to have made it to the Rwandan top 20. "Though we didn't succeed at African level, we tried our level best. But you have to take into account that it was the first time the country participated in such competition. On the other hand, we noticed quite some bias among the organizers, including Burkina Faso's jury, who clearly believed that their participants were the best, and that others were not strong enough to win."
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 Focus Media. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
