THEATRE IN HEALTH EDUCATIONAL SERVICES: AN APPRAISAL OF ANAM MALARIA PROJECT

Abstract

In recent years, several institutions and organizations including hospitals, medical groups, healthcare officers, Theatre Arts workers and etcetera have merged, consolidated or gone out of business to meet the challenging societal and environmental demands of the people. These increases in collaborations have challenged the practitioners with a new task of development and nation building those gears towards touching the psych of the people by giving them a concentrated peep into their life, environments, society, and add values either by involving them or by making them active observers. This collaboration gears towards bringing in individuals from different backgrounds, well versed in their chosen professions, to advocate for improved ways of solving societal and human problems through co-ordinate, analyzed and re-searched, processes through immersive, participatory, interactive, diagnostic, and performance-workshop-approaches. This study investigates the correlation between Theatre in Health Education for behavioral change amongst the people of Mmiata, and Umuoba Anam in Anambra West Local Government area of Anambra State. The gratification theory was used as the theoretical framework while the participatory research approach served as the research method to gather data. The mixed method was used for data analysis. The study further employs Simple Random Sampling Technique to select the households and different discussants. The study discovers that majority of households lack the knowledge of the dangers of mosquito and malaria transmission. The study concludes that the most effective way to prevent malaria is through awareness creation and conscientious efforts of the community.