Deafness, dancing and HIV awareness in South Africa

So here I am again: next trip, next continent.

This time in South Africa. Another Sencity event, another music event for deaf people - and hearing people. Together with an aromajockey, videojockey, vibrating floors, light artists, signdancers and several other artists, we are going to create an amazing experience in the center of Capetown. One year of preparation is about to come to a climax. A team of three project leaders has been working for 6 months together with the local community and deaf society to turn this event to a big success.

There is an interesting difference, looking at the previous events we did. This time we connected an HIV awareness program around the event. Being in a country where the future prime minister says he took a shower after having unprotected sex and therefore would be safe, we wanted to use the Sencity event as a platform. A platform on which deaf role models create a credible listening experience and therefore get access to a community that has been forgotten for centuries and is being ignored, partly because of their own willingness to isolate themselves.

We choose a different point of approach than the regular HIV-awareness programs we have seen so far. This program is not about giving information about safe sex or AIDS prevention. It is about validating the experience of life itself. Appreciating the body and soul you have, using every opportunity you get, using every talent you have to enjoy life to the fullest. In other words, our program is to encourage people to celebrate life.

But you need a living body, so in order to have a life as long as possible, it might be useful to take good care of that body. Which means, among other things, to do a HIV check when you have had unsafe sex or, even better, not to have unsafe sex at all.

I am here for a few days now, together with two deaf youngsters, Lora and Serhat. Lora is a deaf 4th year student, 24 years old and about to finish her Digital Communication study. She has lived in Capetown before, for an internship, and she has been involved with our foundation from the beginning in 2003. She has been leading workshops at deaf centers and deaf schools for a week now. It has been a privilege to witness her enthusiasm and her commitment to make a difference in the lives of these schoolchildren. To make them aware of their own possibilities. To show them that, yes they are deaf, but that doesn’t mean their life is hopeless or over, and that sure doesn’t give them the excuse NOT to enjoy life.

In her workshop she introduces Serhat, a 26-year-old, deaf dancer. Serhat has been performing in our shows all over the world. He had been excluded from his family when he came out of the closet and shared that he was gay. After being depressed, he started to enjoy life again when he realized that he had something to give away by performing as a dancer. In his presentation Serhat shows pictures of his friends and asks the audience if they can see anybody who is HIV-positive. But, as they all look healthy, the people hesitate to choose. Then he shares that he is HIV-positive himself. It hits the audience every time: complete silence, no one is moving. But then he shares, with a big smile, how his life is still an ongoing road with wonderful incidents. In the second part of the workshop, he gives the audience a dance workshop, which is for some people the first time in their lives they have actually danced. They are amazed when they see themselves doing something that they thought was not available to them. It is like they have been touched by the wand of a fairy.

Being here in this paradise, with an astonishing natural setting, a brilliant climate, surrounded by such inspiring people, my life becomes a fairy tale as well. A fairy tale with a confronting reality of huge townships and high percentages of HIV-positive people. And maybe they do not live always happily ever after, but there sure is an inspiring future in front of us.

Keep you posted!