Forum Theatre for Malaria Elimination and Eradication by 2030

Started in the year 2022, Northern Uganda Hip Hop Culture – NUHC was selected as one of the CBOs in Northern Uganda, Lamwo district to join hands in the fight against Malaria with the aim to eliminate and eradicate malaria by 2030. Creatively NUHC is using Forum Theatre as one of the tools to create awareness and mindset change in Malaria prevention and Control among women and children in Padibe Town council. this is an initiative for community social mobilisation and social behavior change communication aim at reducing malaria burden. The program is aligned to the G.o.U’s Malaria elimination Strategic Objective 4 that is at least 85% of the population practices correct malaria prevention and management measures. The development objective of the program is to increase awareness on malaria prevention and uptake of malaria health care services. Today NUHC in partnership with Malaria Consortium, TASO and The Government of Uganda are encouraging the Mass Action Against Malaria (MAAM) as away to achieve the goal of elimination and eradication of malaria by 2030.

NUHC partnered with Malaria Consortium, TASO and the Government of Uganda in the implementation of the strategic intervention 1 for Mass awareness creation with a main target of Malaria prevention and Control among women and children from 43% to 20% in Padibe town council, reducing malaria burden among women through community social mobilisation and social behaviour change communication by December 2022 some of the activities done were engaging all the stakeholders by organising project inception to orientate them on the project goal and objectives.

Mr. Mwaka Benson (Mc Benny) the Executive Director conducting community awareness dialogues with community gate keepers to build Public consensus and commitment for increased demand and uptake of malaria prevention and care programs among women and children. in the meeting we engaged the Local Council, Religious leaders, Village HealthTeams (VHTs) and Health Management committees.

We organised health facility engagements meeting for up to date messages so that Partners and facility management address gaps in malaria health service delivery.

Conducted monthly home visits to follow up pregnant and children to assess utilisation of Insecticide Treated Nets (ITNs), nutrition, mosquito breeding grounds, GBV and child abuse. The project activities cover all the Parishes in Padibe Town council and the progress report highlights what has been done for period of November 2022.

In conclusion, forum theatre has the potential to make a positive impact on malaria eradication efforts in Padibe Town Council, Lamwo District by raising awareness, promoting behavior / mindset change, empowering communities, incorporating local culture, and being a sustainable and scalable intervention. By engaging communities in a participatory and creative way, forum theatre can contribute to efforts aimed at reducing malaria transmission and improving health outcomes in Padibe Town Council, Lamwo District, Northern Uganda.

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Art for Perception Change on Covid-19 (Forum theatre for social behavioural change)

The local community in Kitgum are mostly in rural settings where there is limited access to platforms like media to access information on covid-19 therefore strategies like use of forum theatre, graffiti and spoken words would provide a more simple and convenience access to information on covid-19 and  alternative solutions  to related challenges. following Northern Uganda Hip Hop Culture activities, there are a lot of success stories and up to date NGOs and Local government still call for them for outreaches.

Sensitisation of the community members of Guda village, Namukora Sub-county on the importance of covid-19 Vaccination.

Forum Theatre actors showing the impact of the covid-19 pandemic virus in Guda Vilage, Namukora sub-county, Kitgum District.
Community member having fun during the acting.
Forum session with the community of Guda Village, where the community members have the opportunity to interact with the actors and ask question related to their action on specific challenges like for the covid-19 vaccination.
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2022, World Malaria Commemoration Day In Lamwo District, Palabek Gem Sub-county.

Northern Uganda Hip Hop Culture joined hands together with Malaria Consortium, Lamwo Local Government and other partners to celebrate the world malaria day.

Guest of honour Women Mp of Lamwo and the RDC.
Northern Uganda Hip Hop Culture staff helping to distribute Smart Home fliers to the community members who have attended the celebration.
Malaria Testing and treating being done at the ceremony.
Women Mp giving her speech.
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Artists training and Capacity Building under Art Development In Crisis Project funded by African Culture Fund (ACF)

Last year 2021, NUHC’s application was successful and here are some of the verification for the project. we are so much grateful for African Culture Fund for supporting NUHC..

The Banner for Art Development in Crisis project having the official logos of the donor and the host organisation.
Successful artists from within Northern Uganda who attended the training on creative and social entrepreneurship.
Training on creative and social entrepreneurship where artists were able to learn on how best they can invest in their music and also prepare for emergencies like the Covid-19 pandemic or any other that may affect their performances.
Having lesson on Advocacy as away for the artist to use their art for positive social change or to provide solutions to challenges in the community.
Learning online marketing for creative artists in order for them to sell or showcase using internet so that they can have options to perform even if in lockdown.
We were privileged to have a professional producer and song writer to facilitate on educative song writing and studio recording technics which has greatly improved on the quality of artists creativity in writing and they are assigned to compose songs which are being recorded and we can’t wait to listen to them after the production.
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Good harvest Hop Hop Agribusiness

For many years down the road agriculture has always been the way to go for Hip Hop Culture-NUHC as organization, we have been funding our activities through it. We have never received donation (donor) to support our youth and cultural center activities. We didn’t single ourselves but we shared our skills and knowledge with other artists and today we are happy to share about Bongomin Martin who is based in Palabek, Lamwo district. On his success, he attended training on Hip Hop agribusiness and later he started his own club called Charity Youth club and he is helping his community by mobilizing young men and women to work and pay them to support their education.
Today Mr Bongomin Martin is able to generate money to support his family through investing in tomato plantation.
Young men doing the harvest in the permagarden.
We believe that by sharing skills to others, we empower them. NUHC is forever grateful with all the success in the community. We are artists of change not you just entertainers.
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Youth Human Rights Defender Mentorship

On the 16th-08-2021, NUHC signed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with The Human Rights Centre Uganda. we are privileged to have two mentees in our organisation who will be mentored for 2 months on Youth Access to Justice in Uganda.

We are the human rights defenders we love what we do as we look forward to reach out to fellow youths in our community and preach the gospel about their rights and great opportunities that await them rather than being idle and non-productive. Out of the Young Human Rights Defender mentorship offered by NUHC, we have learned numerous challenges that youth go through as a result of inadequate access to information about their right as declared by the United Nation (UN) General Assembly resolution 53/144 (8 march 1999) which aim at promotion and protection of all human rights and fundamental freedom for all person in all countries of the world

This is how interactive we are because we believe that every person has a voice that needs to be heard given the right platform. We are glad that here, we look at the issues that affect our community and come up with a positive resolution that will aim at bettering our community. In the office with our mentor Mr. Mwaka Benson commonly known as Mc Benny Acholimuding and we the Mentees are Otema Ronald and Namagalu Priscilla who are passionate to become youth activists.

Sitting abode, no doubt strategic work plans are discussed for a better community in the serene, spacious and ever-green garden. Getting out of the office setting and interacting with environment while learning how to adopt to situations. This is week one of NUHC engaging with youth from The Human Right Centre Uganda on a mentorship progamme that will run for 40 days and as the organization we are privileged to work with the amazing vibrant youth who are eager to be promoters of the youth rights in the community.

we are here as a team to reach out youth to access justice.

Focus, determination and persistence above all. As a team or NUHC family we are focus on creative ways to transform our community like using music, art, fashion, dance and poetry. During this covid-19 pandemic, The Taekwondo team is helping out few individuals at the Centre to be actively fit and promote health in our community. Today we are broken down with the pandemic and the youth especially are the most victimized since most of the institutions are closed that use to help and guide them like schools, youth Centres, etc. with us we are determine to make it still work for the youth by giving them skills or promoting their talents as they wait for schools and other institutions to open.

Having a lovely family like the NUHC FAMILY, makes one feel like there is no better place to BE.

No matter where you come from or who you are when at NUHC, put aside all your differences WE ARE A FAMILY.

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Forum Theatre for People With Disabilities (PWD)

From day one, when Forum Theatre was introduced in Uganda most especially Northern Uganda which went through war for two decades. A lot of changes has been witnessed in communities, from disabled to abled persons. it was conducted in over 4 districts within Northern Uganda. The plays were focusing on changing perception of the community on the people with disabilities.
It is a powerful tool for community engagement and education since it involves the triggering of the audience to come out with resolution or solutions to the challenge that affect a group of people like on this play where the actors were focusing on land issues. here the community came up with more alternative ways for handling land wrangles. Today, in Northern land wrangles is topping beside other issues like Gender Based Violent (GBV).
Some of the affected communities during the war watching the play since it was targeting challenges that they are facing.
No matter the situation you are in educating a child is a must and on the play it was focusing how people with disabilities struggle to take their children to get education.
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Covid-19 Support to Artists

From day one when the global pandemic (Covid-19) NUHC as an organisation that deals with art or creativity has been facing a lot of challenges with the members and the community at large. Art industry was the first to be closed and we don’t know when it will be open again!. This has made our artists to loose hope because most depend on shows or crowd performances but as organisation we were grateful to our partner In place of War (IPOW) for supporting us with emergency relief fund that we managed to provide food for artists in two districts (Gulu and Kitgum) in Northern Uganda who since the lockdown have never received any support either from the government or international agents. With the funding also we managed to provide preventive measures material for the People With Disabilities (PWD), the translated version and pictorial posters. inmates and the media also benefited from the relief food.
At Kitgum District Resident Commissioner (RDC) office, delivering the translated covid-19 posters to the Risk communication and community engagement task force chairperson and the district chairperson for Disabilities. The poster was designed by Brian Omal (Ofwox) a member of NUHC who heads the grafitti. For years our goal has been to ensure inclusion for all.
Handing over the Covid-19 preventive measures posters to the Task force of Gulu.
Sharing with Artists some of the positive ways of living during the pandemic before receiving their food.
Following the SOPs while giving food to the Artists inKitgum.
The officials of Kitgum Prison receiving food on behalf of the inmates.
Media members
Youth Dance group
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New equipment from Roland Company Through IPOW.

It is more of a dream comes true for the centre after receiving this amazing equipment from Roland Company through In Place of War. Northern Uganda Uganda Hip Hop Culture-NUHC has been struggling a lot to have machines that would help them with production of music and recording of some of the cultural music.
The centre is a rural urban based with no yet electricity reach but always busy with youth coming from four different communities or cells (villages) and other parts of the municipal. for a while we have been using generator for carrying out some events or activities that requires power. we are happy that with this equipment the centre will be doing much more, as stated by one of the members (X-Boss) saying ” with this equipment he as a rapper will be able to record now “.
As NUHC family we would like to thank In Place Of War and Roland Company for their support and still looking forward to continue working together to transform this world.
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so. much. is. happening. (pt. 2–BIGGEST ACCOMPLISHMENT YET!)

Guess. What. After a year and a half of building, a few years of planning, and many years of dreaming, WE HAVE OFFICIALLY OPENED THE KITGUM YOUTH CULTURAL SPACE. We will say it again for those in the back… THE YOUTH CENTRE IS O.P.E.N. I’m not sure if you all know how amazing this is, but in case you don’t, it’s amazing. This is the first community-owned community space that will serve as a hub for all things young people and all things creativity. This space is the physical manifestation of all the dreams, hope, persistence, dedication, passion, strength, and love of creative changemakers in Kitgum. It is also the physical manifestation of community and partnership, both in Kitgum and across the world. We want to give a huge thank you to all the people who have been a part of this dream, from day one until now. You do not know how much your support means to us nor how impactful it will be in the lives of many for years to come.

[on that note: the centre is not yet *complete,* so if you would like to be a part of this movement for long-lasting, sustainable, community-driven change, please check out (and share!) our GoFundMe page]

We had an amazing grand-opening event on 25 May 2019. We began the event with a march from Kitgum Town Centre to the Youth Centre, accompanied by a brass band. Once we reached the space, we kicked off a day filled with commitments to make this the most active and impactful space in the district and the region. Youth groups and representatives from across Kitgum were present, we had our partners and family from the Lake Minnetonka Excelsior Rotary Club in Minnesota present, and, most humbly, we had our distinguished guests: Raymond Ocan, the LCIII of Pandwong Division, the Resident District Commission (RDC–representative of the President in Kitgum), and honourable Beatrice Anywar, Member of Parliament for Kitgum Municipality. It was clear they were all impressed with and admired the dedication, passion, and commitment of NUHC to create such a positive space for the young people in Kitgum. They were eager to offer their praises and support. There was an electric sort of energy present that day, one that can not be well described but only felt. People are ready for change, and this space has become a place dedicated to fostering and amplifying that change. We ended the ceremony with a cutting of the ribbon, signing names on the wall, and planting trees as a way to symbolize growth, life, and our dedication to making the world a better place for all.

  • marching to the centre
  • the official opening
  • planting trees for the future
  • this
  • is
  • joy
  • two of the original minds behind the centre

While we once thought of the opening of the centre would be a goal to which we aimed to strive, we realized on the day of the opening, that this is just the beginning. Of course, the importance and power of the opening is not lost on us, and we have taken time to celebrate, we also know the real work begins now. And, we are up for the challenge. We hope you are too! The week after the launch, we had young people packed in the building working on their dances. The next week, we had young people surrounding the space working on their raps. It’s real, folks, this is where magic is going to happen and we. cannot. wait.

Ocan Raymond, LCIII of Pandwong Division
our forum theatre friends
nuhc battalion
partners and supporters (RDC, LMERC, MP-Beatrice Anywar, NUHC)

Hopefully more updates to come soon! Until then, thank you for the love and support. We will leave you with a quote from our mentor, Madiba, one that keeps us going even when the times are tough: “There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.”

much love, team nuhc

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