Tanvi, 19, India
Basic need(s):
Education
Project:
Teaching life skills and affecting change in society through theatre
Tanvi has loved and understood the importance of theatre her entire life, but it wasn’t until she left her home in India to attend the Global Young Leaders Conference that she realized how important theatre could be in other people’s lives. “One evening our Faculty Advisor initiated a long discussion about how theatre and dramatics influence our lives in varied ways. While everyone discussed how theatre provides us with entertainment, he told us how he uses theatre as a tool to spread awareness in Kenya.” With that seed in her brain, Tanvi returned to her nation determined to make a difference in her community through theatre. She founded a theatre workshop with the assistance of Anubhav Shiksha Kendra, a local school established for the underprivileged, in which over 25 children from the street between 8 and 13 years old participate. This project has helped its constituents in life skills development through the basic values of theatre. Tanvi’s various other like-minded programs have enacted plays on pertinent, pressing issues such as child labor and prostitution, female infanticide, women’s rights, AIDS and education. By using a tool such as theatre, she has created an environment that benefits two factions of society—the children (its actors) and the adults (its audience). The kids learn about important problems as well as necessary life skills; while the adults are privy to fun, quality entertainment and a new sense of awareness and activism. Tanvi’s most recent involvement was in July 2009 when she, along with other student groups, organized a stage play involving 100 kids, detailing the various stereotypes that exist in the world. Her next big event will be in the summer of 2010 in the form of a mega production involving another group of talented young students; those who can afford education working alongside the ones who can't.
