HIV testing encouraged through theatre

The Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers' Union (SACTWU) is using theatre to encourage HIV testing among its members in KwaZulu-Natal province. Five retrenched textile workers were employed by SACTWU to perform the soap-opera style plays during lunch breaks in clothing factories throughout the province. The national director of the SACTWU AIDS Project, Feroza Mansoor, said the initiative was started because factory workers had found conventional AIDS awareness programmes boring. Mansoor told the UN news service, PlusNews: "The audience sees people from the industry on stage, who play people from the industry and can this way easily identify with what is happening on stage."