With the highest death rate in the world and 43% of its 1.2 million population living with HIV/AIDS, hysteria has entered Swazilands public consciousness. Earlier this year, a politician floated the idea of compulsory HIV testing, forcing those infected to be tattooed on the buttocks. The epidemic has had a profound impact on this tiny landlocked country and has posed significant development challenges.

Super Buddies Club is a nationwide youth network that uses the arts to educate its peers about HIV/AIDS and the factors contributing to the increasing prevalence of the virus. The Club also produces Africas first youth-produced radio drama. Fifteen members of the Super Buddies Club aged between 14 and 17, worked during their school holidays to write a script about how childrens rights are violated through sexual abuse, causing many to turn to a life on the streets and be exposed to the virus.

Through theatre, the group tells the story of Anty, a teenage girl who lives on the streets to escape sexual abuse at the hands of her uncle. As the drama unfolds, the lonely and starving teenager is befriended by a younger group of children. As their friendship grows, Anty overcomes the shame she feels and shares her story. This act of courage gives the strength to another girl in the group to speak out about the abuse she is suffering at the hands of her father. Together the children help find a safe place for the girl. In the end, the abusive father is arrested and the girl is saved. The youths performed the play at a child protection rally held in June this year. More than 1,500 people attended the event which was also covered by the leading national paper. After their performance, discussions followed on child rights and responsibilities.

To research the scripts content, the 15 youths talked to street children to find out why they had left their homes. These youths are themselves from poor backgrounds. Some were AIDS orphans and the majority had the responsibility of raising their brothers and sisters. We learnt that many children who are in abusive situations are often threatened by the abusers or their relatives not to report the cases to the police, they wrote.

We put that component into our drama, to educate our parents and relatives during the Super Buddies dialogue, so that they would realise that abuse was a violation of our right to protection. We also made a point of including the scene where the children help the child who was sexually abused by her father. This was in order to show that children themselves can play a major role in fighting against abuse.

As Super Buddies, we have been taught that our role is to help our peers in difficult situations. Since the dialogue included children who are not Super Buddies, we hope we have broadened the group of children that we reach.