Script
Characters:
Program host
Classroom teacher
( can be the Program host)
Nuzhat, Jaya, Saida:
Three school friends
Program host
: Today we continue our discussion of HIV and AIDS. In our previous drama about this deadly disease, we learned some of the facts about HIV and AIDS, including how it is spread and how you can protect yourself from contracting it. Today’s discussion between three school friends shows how HIV and AIDS affects young people and family life. Perhaps it will help you to understand the problems faced by someone you know whose family has been affected by this disease.
[Note: The opening scene is a classroom where students are recounting multiplication tables.]
Class (all together):
Two times two is four. Four times four is eight. Eight times eight is sixteen…
SOUND EFFECTS (School bell ringing in the distance).
Teacher
: Good work, class. I will see you bright and early tomorrow morning.
Class
(all together) : Thank you, Miss Ndovi.
SOUND EFFECTS (Sound of students getting up from their seats, talking and leaving school. This runs as background sound for a few seconds under the following dialogue.).
Nuzhat
: Hey, Jaya, wait for me.
Jaya
: Oh, hello, Nuzhat.
Nuzhat
: What is your hurry? You didn’t even say good-bye.
Jaya
: Oh, sorry. I’m going to visit Saida before I go home to help prepare our evening meal.
Nuzhat
: Saida? You’re going to visit Saida?
Jaya
: Yes. Why not? She’s my friend. In fact, she’s your friend too, isn’t she?
Nuzhat
: Yes, but you know she has the sickness.
Jaya
: I know no such thing. I know that two years ago she lost her father to this sickness called AIDS, and now this year her mother died of the same disease. This is all I know.
It does not mean that Saida has the same disease and, even if she does, I still want to see her. She is my friend. I miss her. She hasn’t been to school in three months.
Nuzhat
: But, Jaya, aren’t you worried that you might catch AIDS from Saida?
Jaya
: How?
Nuzhat
: Well, what if she touches you or coughs on you or something?
Jaya
: You can’t catch AIDS from touching, Nuzhat. You should have come to hear the health worker talk about AIDS yesterday. She explained all about it.
Nuzhat
: You went? My mother wouldn’t let me go. She said that type of talk encourages young people to have sex.
Jaya
: Nuzhat, your mother is a wise woman, but she is wrong about this. In fact, I think many of us came away thinking it is much better not to rush into having sex. It’s the best way to protect yourself from this illness.
Nuzhat
: Really?
Jaya
: Really. The main way AIDS is spread is through sex between people if they are not using a condom. So the best protection is not to have sex. But if you are going to do it, stay with one partner and use a condom every time.
Nuzhat
: The health worker talked about that? Wow. Tell me more.
Jaya
: Alright, but hurry. We have to walk and talk because I want to visit Saida and I have to go home to help my mother.
MUSICAL BREAK.
Nuzhat
: Look! There’s Saida — sitting underneath the tree over there.
Jaya
: I wonder what she’s doing all by herself?
Nuzhat
: Are you sure it’s safe to go near her?
Jaya
: Absolutely. Don’t you think I value my life? Well, are you coming or not?
Nuzhat
: Yes, I’m coming. I miss Saida too.
Jaya
: Let’s have a race!
SOUND EFFECTS (Sounds of two girls running. Run sound for a few seconds and then fade out.).
Jaya
: Hi, Saida. How are you? We haven’t seen you at school for a long time.
Saida
: I’m alright. How are you?
Nuzhat
: We’re fine. We were just coming to visit you.
Saida
: You were? I haven’t seen you in so long I thought that you had forgotten about me.
Jaya
: No, Saida. How could we forget you?
Saida
: Why haven’t I seen you since my mother’s funeral?
Jaya
: We are so sorry. Aren’t we Nuzhat?
Nuzhat
: Yes, we are sorry, Saida. We never meant to hurt you.
Jaya
: I…we…I was afraid, Saida. I didn’t want to get sick. I knew that your mother and father both died of the AIDS sickness and I didn’t want to catch it from you.
Nuzhat
: Me too. We missed you, but we were afraid.
Saida
: I know. Hardly anyone comes to see us any more. Everyone thinks they can catch the disease from us. But that’s not true. The medical doctor, he explained about this disease. I know how it is passed on. But anyway, if you are so afraid why are you coming to look for me?
Jaya
: We know better now, Saida. Yesterday, somebody came to the school to talk about HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
Nuzhat
: My mother wouldn’t let me go and listen, but Jaya told me all about it.
Jaya
: Well, I haven’t told you everything yet. There is a lot more that you should know. I want to learn more, too, so I can help other people learn about this illness. But at least now we know that it is safe to visit you. That’s why I wanted to come to see you straight away.
Saida
: I am amazed that they talked about this at school. Before they would never have done such a thing. There are so many things people can do to protect themselves from this disease. I only wish my father knew this. He infected my mother, you know. We kept it a secret for a long time.
Jaya
: Now I know why you would sometimes get quiet and have that sad look in your eyes.
Nuzhat
: But, Saida, why haven’t you been at school?
Saida
: Did you think that I wanted to come and be stared at? To have the other students make fun of me?
Nuzhat
: Oh, Saida. That wouldn’t have happened.
Saida
: Wouldn’t it? You are my friends. Where have you been for the past three months?
Jaya
: But, Saida, you are so strong and courageous. And you love to learn so much, I would not have thought such fears would keep you from school.
Saida
: The truth is, it isn’t my fears. My family keeps me from school. They need me now. Ever since my parents died, my grandmother has been trying to take care of all of us children, but it is too much for her to manage alone.
Someone should be taking care of her, instead of her having to carry a child on her back. I am the eldest. She did not have to ask. I know my responsibilities.
Nuzhat
: So you are helping to care for the other children.
Saida
: Yes. And I work in the fields. Sometimes I go into town to sell produce at the market. Of course there is the washing to do, and fetching water and collecting wood.
Nuzhat
: Can’t your brothers and sisters help?
Saida
: They do what they can, but they are so young, Nuzhat. Besides they are still so sad about losing our parents. We are all sad. We are all alone.
Jaya
: No, you are not. Not any more. You have me.
Nuzhat
: And me.
Jaya
: You know we are busy with school and our own chores at home, but we can make time to come and visit you and help with fetching water or wood or taking care of the children.
Saida
: (crying) Oh, Jaya. Nuzhat … (sobbing)
Nuzhat
: Saida. Why are you crying? We just want to help.
Saida
: You don’t understand. It has been so hard these last few years. Carrying the secret. Watching my father die. Caring for my mother and watching her pass away. Seeing the burden of my grandmother. Not seeing my friends or being able to go to school. It means so much to know that you care. I am so glad I saw you two today.
Jaya
: We are too, Saida. We are too.
– END –
Acknowledgements
- Contributed by: Adiat Junaid, Researcher/Writer, Toronto, Canada.
- Reviewed by: Peggy Florida, Program Manager, International Programs, UNICEF Canada.
Information sources
- Youth-To-Youth: HIV prevention and young people in Kenya, Glen Williams, Lucy Ng’ang’a and John Ngugi, Strategies for Hope Series No. 13, September 1999. Actionaid, Hamlyn House, Macdonald Road, Archway, London N19 5PG, England.
- Open Secret: People facing up to HIV and AIDS in Uganda, Noerine Kaleeba, Joyce Namulondo Kadowe, Kaniel Kalinaki, Glen Williams, Strategies for Hope Series No. 15, July 2000. Actionaid, Hamlyn House, Macdonald Road, Archway, London N19 5PG, England.
- Choices: A Guide for Young People, Gill Gordon, 1999. Macmillan Publishers Limited, 25 Eccleston Place, London, England, SW1W 9NF.
- “HIV/AIDS: a rural issue,” Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, (see also series of related articles and links).
- “Children Orphaned by AIDS: Front-line responses from eastern and southern Africa,” December 1999, UNICEF, Division of Communication, 3 United Nations Plaza, H-9F, New York, NY 10017, USA. E-mail: pubdoc@unicef.org
- “Adolescents and HIV/AIDS: XIII International AIDS Conference,” July 2000. UNICEF, Durban, South Africa.
- “Heightening Awareness of HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean Region: Bridging the Gap from Denial to Acceptance to Prevention — Preparing for the Next Millennium,” Peggy McEvoy. Speech given by P. McEvoy, Team Leader, UNAIDS Caribbean Team (Caribbean Conference on HIV/AIDS, February 24-25, 2000).
- “Young Lives at Risk: Adolescents and sexual health,” Panos Briefing No. 35, July 1999. Panos London, 9 White Lion Street, London N1 9PD, England. Tel: (0171) 278 1111, Fax: (0171) 278 0345, E-mail: panoslondon@gn.apc.org.
- “Youth: A Right to Sexuality,” SafAIDS Fact Sheet No. 1:99. SafAIDS, PO Box A509, Avondale, Harare, Zimbabwe. Tel: 263 4 336193/4 Fax: 263 4 336195, E-mail: info@safaids.org.zw.
- Radio and HIV/AIDS: Making a Difference: A guide for radio practitioners, health workers and donors, Gordon Adam and Nicola Harford. Media Action International, Villa de Grand Montfleury, Versoix, Geneva 1290, Switzerland. Tel: (+41 22) 950 0750, Fax: (+41 22) 950 0752, E-mail: info@mediaaction.org.