| In
2004, a health communication organization called Nalamdana—meaning
“Are you well?” in Tamil—began collaborating
with the huge Government Hospital of Thoracic Medicine in Tambaram,
India, just outside Chennai. MAKE
ART/STOP AIDS recognized this collaboration as a
perfect pilot to test what can be accomplished by artists working
in hospital settings. Indeed, five years later Nalamdana has evolved
into a leader in this field, using theater, music, and radio as
tools for HIV education, stigma reduction, and to promote an atmosphere
of healing. For Nalamdana, the key to success has been a close
working relationship between medical staff and artists. In conversation
with the hospital’s director, doctors, nurses, and counselors,
Nalamdana devises brief interactive role-plays and longer evening
plays on issues relevant to people living with HIV/AIDS. Themes
are suggested by medical staff. The plays entertain and generate
goodwill among a particularly appreciative and eager audience
of hospital patients, and the project fills a communication vacuum
for up to 1,000 new patients who arrive at the hospital each day.
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After
witnessing the program’s profound ability to enhance
communication, education, and health throughout the hospital
campus, Nalamdana came up with another novel idea: a cable
radio program. Since 2007, they have operated a state-of-the-art
public address system known on campus as Thendral—which
means “breeze” in Tamil. The name was suggested
by patients themselves, recognizing the cooling solace provided
by basic human interaction on radio: education in an entertaining
format. |
Thendral broadcasts live for five and a half
hours, six days a week in the hospital’s Tuberculosis and
HIV wards and features hospital staff as on-air personalities.
Recently, the hospital’s Superintendent, Dr. Chandrasekar,
asked if Nalamdana’s radio programming could be reconceived
to meet the needs of new HIV patients who generally stay at Tambaram
for two weeks while their antiretroviral medications are calibrated.
This request provided the impetus for a completely reorganized
14-day curriculum, covering such topics as What is HIV?, What
do my medications do in my body?, Why is drug adherence so important?,
And how can I best handle the stigma of HIV/AIDS when I return
to my home village? One special component of the curriculum deals
with the psychosocial needs of HIV-positive women, who were not
initially as responsive to the curriculum as men. These new inputs
come via the Mothers’ Voices curriculum devised by YRG Care
and AIDS Project Los Angeles. This material is conveyed through
various media, for example, on-air conversation with medical staff,
artfully amplified by music and drama programming.
In future, Nalamdana aims to further strengthen
its existing programming by expanding hours and hooking up additional
wards. Plans are also underway to offer training to medical and
arts teams from Tamil Nadu government hospitals in Chennai and
Madurai, with the intention of encouraging satellite versions
of this innovative model. Standard programming would be produced
by Nalamdana, with local inputs provided by artists and medical
staff at new sites.
Credits:
Funding provided by UNAIDS, UNESCO, and the Ford Foundation,
with ongoing support from the Tamil Nadu State AIDS Prevention
and Control Society (TANSACS).
Special thanks to YRG Care and AIDS Project Los Angeles for training
in the Mothers’ Voices curriculum.
Nithya Balaji is the founding director of Nalamdana. R. Jeevanandham
is the creative director for radio programming. Madhu Jhona is
coordinator of the project on the GHTM campus.
For
more pictures on this project, please click here
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