INVISIBLE THEATRE & CURBING GENDER BASED VIOLENCE IN SRI LANKA

InGaDS (Institute for Gender and Development Studies) Sri Lanka and Service Civil International jointly organized a five day workshop on Theatre of the Oppressed to curb gender based violence, from 3rd to 8th August, 2013. The workshop was a huge success, as it trained a pool of twenty practitioners of Theatre of the Oppressed to be active in curbing gender based violence. The two trainers, Matteo Testino/Italy and Nena Mocnik/Slovenia played untiring roles during five days to develop theoretical knowledge and practical skills among the trainees. Their services are greatly appreciated by InGaDS as it was completly a voluntary work to develop capacity of the trainees. 

The Forum Theatre, Newspaper Theatre and the Invisible Theatre were the three key methods trained in the workshop. The climax of the workshop was the trainee playing Invisible Theatre in the reality in three places in Kandy and Peradeniya. The selected topics for the Invisible theatre were (1) harrasments on girls in public places, and (2) women's purchasing power. 

The first topic was able to make the public aware of possible harrasment in public places using digital cameras, and the second one let the public question about harrasment happennig over women's purchasing power. InGaDS is in the process of organizing the pool of trainees as activists against gended based violence, who use the Theatre of the Oppressed effectively to curb them. 

We thank Service Civil International, Matteo Testion and Nena Mocnik and all the participants for making the event a great success.

We can gain, only if we share!!

Written by Nishadi Somaratne, PhD Freelance Consultant in Gender, Social Capital, and Rural Community Development.