After The Workshop: Disclosure & Advocacy

Body Maps going Home - Disclosure among family and friends

Following the workshop, participants retain ownership of their body maps and decide how to use them. In addition, every artist receives an A3-sized laminated copy of their body map which they can take home and show to family and friends. Since stigma and discrimination linked to HIV/Aids is very strong in Kenya, many people find it difficult to reveal their status even within close personal relationships.  The small-sized body maps are therefore designed to assist participants in broaching the subject trough a transitional object that can ‘speak for itself’.  This allows for a more indirect and less threatening way of communicating with family and friends.

Life Story in print

At different intervals after the workshop, we conduct group and individual follow-up interviews during which we talk about and look again at the body map.  We receive feedback and find out how participants are using or not using the body maps.  We ask about insights gained during the workshop.  Together with the participant, we also review the initially taped life story and prepare a final document that can – if the person consents - be printed, exhibited next to the body map and used for other documentation.  These interviews provide once more the space to retell, reshape and newly combine memories and experiences with the effect of “thickening” one’s life story.

Body Maps going public: Advocacy and Sensitisation Campaigns

Despite the difficulties in disclosing at home, most participants decide to stage group exhibitions in the larger community.  These generally take place outside on a market place or busy pedestrian crossroads. Whenever possible, the artists stand next to their map and respond to the questions of the public.  This gives participants the opportunity to come out in public, to connect to others through shared aspects of their lives (e.g. poverty, being a mother/father), and to give HIV/Aids their human face.  Many viewers hear the warnings about HIV/Aids and take heart from the conversations in front of the body maps.  Some even make an appointment there and then to go together to the nearest VCT (Voluntary Counseling and Testing) Centre to get tested.

Future Dreams becoming real:  Income Generation Projects

In collaboration with GTZ Kenya, we have recently started to focus more on participants’ future dreams and their realisation after the Body Mapping workshop.  Together with representatives of their community organisation, participants develop a collective plan for income generating activities that would bring each of them closer to their individual future dream.  A business plan is developed and technical and financial assistance provided by GTZ.  Currently, a public toilet business is being run by the Body Mapping Group Mukuru, and a revolving loan scheme has been initiated the Body Mapping Group Buru Buru.