Tools and Means for action

“Through the games and the role plays we can go deep into the themes we want to develop, like the gender issue or human rights. It is a concrete way of opening debates, make people think, give them keys of understanding and in the end, build projects together.

Most important is the way you train people. If I go to a very conservative region, I could behave like they expect me to, dress like them. But what would it change? I can bring changes by just being myself.

Once I did training with men, 30 till 60 years old, in a very conservative village. I went there as I am, behaving and dressed in a manner to which I am accustomed. In the beginning they didn’t accept it, all the more since I had to be very close to them, showing them how to hold a camera. They didn’t really participate in the games. After a while, I told them that they should see me not as a woman only but as a professional, or a sister, a mother, whatever they like, but they should not be embarrassed like that. The wall between us has been slowly but surely broken. One of the oldest men was a Sheikh, he bought a camera and started to play our games with his family after the sessions. His son told him that all this was against God, that I was a bad woman, that I wasn’t dressed properly, that he should quit the training and break the camera. The Sheikh replied I was a very strict and honest professional, and that the way I was dressed didn’t mean anything.

These are the kinds of small changes that will transform our society and bring people together.”

To know more about it: “Participatory Video, a practical guide to using video creatively in group development work”, by Jackie Shaw and Clive Robertson.

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