VOICE OF HOPE
Helping the Underprivileged Community
Like it or not, in our society, there exists a segment of the population, which is essentially left out or not cared about. They are being excluded, trivialized and devalued to the fringe of the society which prevents them from any meaningful participation in society. These marginalized people are excluded from mainstream social, economy, cultural, or political life. Do any of us even think about them for a sec? Do they appear in our mind for a glimpse? Or we just completely forget about them and only care for those who hold big title and name.We realized this reality and came up with an idea of organizing a program for the sake of this group. We want to get to know them better, listen to their stories and experiences, their sorrow and sadness. They, just like us, deserved good things in life. With this realization, we would like to educate the public through a theatre performance entitled ‘I’m P+’ with the aim of reducing discrimination and prejudice of society to this group. Not only that, we willorganize an exhibition focusing on:People Living with HIV (PLHIV),Drug UserLesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT)HomelessWhy theatre? It has been known that theatre is a powerful weapon in raising awareness. When a play is perform by a local theatre group, for a local audience in its own language, it has the ability to reach an audience member with a particular message that can have a lasting impact. Moreover, the actors are from the community itself, who has experienced the hardship and difficulties. This will make it easier to educate the society about the focused marginalized group.
Overview of Issue / Background
Like it or not, in our society, there exists a segment of the population, which is essentially left out or not cared about. They are being excluded, trivialized and devalued to the fringe of the society which prevents them from any meaningful participation in society. These marginalized people are excluded from mainstream social, economy, cultural, or political life. Do any of us even think about them for a sec? Do they appear in our mind for a glimpse? Or we just completely forget about them and only care for those who hold big title and name.
We realized this reality and came up with an idea of organizing a program for the sake of this group. We want to get to know them better, listen to their stories and experiences, their sorrow and sadness. They, just like us, deserved good things in life. With this realization, we would like to educate the public through a theatre performance entitled ‘I’m P+’ with the aim of reducing discrimination and prejudice of society to this group. Not only that, we will
organize an exhibition focusing on:
- People Living with HIV (PLHIV),
- Drug User
- Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT)
- Homeless
Why theatre? It has been known that theatre is a powerful weapon in raising awareness. When a play is perform by a local theatre group, for a local audience in its own language, it has the ability to reach an audience member with a particular message that can have a lasting impact. Moreover, the actors are from the community itself, who has experienced the hardship and difficulties. This will make it easier to educate the society about the focused marginalized group.
Project Objectives (Vision & Mission)
The main objectives that are expected to be achieved during the program are:
- To raise public awareness of the targeted marginalize community
- To dispel common myths and misconceptions as well as fighting the discrimination about marginalized group
- To acknowledge the existence of infected and affected people in our society that has been neglected
- To involye more and more people from marginalized community in educational activities
- Attracting the attention of the general public to make them accept the reality of marginalized people in our communities and recognize their rights
Project Details (Activities and Tasks)
This program will be held for 3 days from 18" to 20" September 2014 at Cultural Activities Center (CAC) HALL, ITUM which will be participated by ten actors and organizing club, Film & Creative Production Club togheter with co-organizer NGO, Persatuan Amal Firdausi (PAFI) and support by Malaysian Aids Council (MAC).
Theatre serves as a mirror to a community’s behavior. Not only that, it has been known that theatre is a very powerful tool in transmitting information and educating public. There are many theatre performances all over the world with the aim of raising awareness to the society. And unexpectedly, the outcome shows that theatre has been a great help to both performers and audiences. Thus, based on this fact, we decided to conduct a project to educate public about marginalized people using techniques of theatre, dance, and song. Through this program, the actors will be able to share their experiences and difficulties to the public. They will lay great impact to the audience as the actors themselves came from the community, Interactive theatre, if used correctly, can be a very powerful tool for behavioral change and spreading information about certain issue — in our case, issue focusing on marginalized people.
Ticket sales will be donated te the development of marginalize community, We will be using various branches of promotion for huge promotional impact. That will include newspaper and radio, as our targeted audience is not only UM students but to the public as well. With the promotion through media, we hope that more people will come and learn about the marginalized people and their reality.
‘Voice of Hope’ is a platform that will bring the community as well as students to cooperate and sitting together, sharing the happiness and the hardship. Through this, the participants, audiences, students and public at large will be able to reduce stigma and prejudice that they have among them. Thus, it will meet the ultimate objective of Voice of Hope 2014.
Expected Project Result & Outcomes
The main points that are expected to be learned by all participants and committees during theprogram are:
- The participants will be able to experience happiness through self-acceptance and socialacceptance
- The participants as well as public will be able to reflect themselves
- The participants as well as public would be able to reduce stigma and prejudice thatthey have among them
0% of RM1.00 Goal
Project Information
| University name | : | International Islamic University Malaysia |
| Project leader name | : | NOR HIDAYAH BT MAT ZAIN |
Section I
Performing arts have been traditionally used to convey essential messages, knowledge and skills from one generation to the next. For example, interactive theatre, if used correctly, can be a very powerful tool for behavioral change and transmitting information on HIV & AIDS. Thus, after some pondering and discussions, I’m P+ the Theatre became reality in order to channel information about HIV.
I’m P+ the Theatre has become one of the major events this semester. This theatre acts as a measurement for another upcoming theatre performances in IIUM. Not only that, it also acts as a motivation for another clubs and societies to organize more successful events that will help boost the university’s name.
It is not an easy job to organize a theatre with HIV as its main concern. This theatre is a result of hardship and difficulties faced by the Project Manager as well as the committees. Problems by problems appeared as the date of performance approaching. But, these difficulties actually motivated us and contributed the success of this major event.
Alhamdulillah. Our program get quite a coverage by Malay Mail, BERNAMA News, IIUM Press and IIUM FM. We succeed to collect RM6000. It can be considered as a huge accomplishment as we only promote this event in a short period of time, a week. We also received positive feedbacks from the audiences.
“I’m P+ will be one of my best and important memory in my life … thanks (T_T) (T_T) (T_T) (T_T) (Mr. Wong Gar Shen PIC’s Project for Happiness 2014)
“An eye-opening theatre! Many audiences were crying their eyes out. Let’s collaborate next time. We’ll look for another issue. This theatre is an outstanding opening for this semester. Everyone is expecting for more excellent theatre after this!” (ELITS’ President)
“All this while, I heard that HIV is an easily-infected virus. After watching them, listening to their stories, I learn to appreciate their feeling and I learn to understand that society’s perceptions about HIV are incorrect. I suggest that this theatre continues to educate public about HIV. I give 5 out of 5.” (Siti Nur Syuhada, IIUM)
“Congratulations! It was a great performance! I’m touched. You guys should promote it to outsiders to create awareness.” (Mrs Farah Hamizah, CONSIST College)
Pusat Kesihatan Daerah Hulu Langat gave us huge support for this charity event. Our program also has been personally advised by Datin Marina, former president of Malaysian Aid Council and The Founder of PT Foundation. Pusat Kesihatan Daerah, UITM’s theatre club and UNISEL’s Youth club were very interested to collaborate with us for the next project. Besides that, another great achievement is I’m P+ the Theatre has been nominated for Anugerah Tokoh Mahasiswa
This effort will not stop here. Educating public and creating awareness is a non-stop job. As long as the infected and affected HIV are discriminated, we will try our best to reduce it.
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