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Greetings again from Information Activism Camp! Apologies for my silence in the past few days. Too many interesting people, too many fun activities, and too many opportunities to learn...and not enough time to do it all. But don't worry - I have a plan. I am collecting stories of innovative tactics from campers while I am here, and will continue to share them with you over the next few weeks and months.

The Camp has been lovely, inspiring, busy, rewarding, and HOT! The afternoons get very steamy - especially in the sun (which is everywhere, everyday). We are all grateful to have a pool here, and a 3-hour afternoon break to cool down and relax. The structure of each day consists of group meeting in the morning; a 2-hour 'session' on topics such as security, blogging, digital activism, website design, using video, using SMS, etc etc; another 2-hour session on even more topics/tactics; lunch and afternoon break; 2-hour session in the evening; and entertainment for the rest of the evening. Entertainment includes dancers, singers, drummers, people playing with fire, and a camp bazaar (which included a very engaging open-mic extravaganza). The photo above was taking from across the pool, of campers taking time to get to know each other in the evening.

I have been focusing most of my learning around security issues, digital activism, using mobile phones, contact management, and website design. I am planning to go into detail about all these topics in the next few weeks, but for this post I would to tell you about one great experience I have had so far here at the Camp - facilitating an improv drama exercise.

In a last-minute effort to a fun, hands-on activity for campers focusing on 'story-telling,' Jessica from Social Media Exchange in Lebanon and I decided to facilitate an improv drama exercise as one way of telling your story. We weren't exactly sure what to expect, but we came up with a few ideas, and decided to go with the flow. Twelve campers decided to join us for our drama exercise, and we had 2 hours to guide them through the improv activity, and present their drama to the group. The 12 campers were split into two groups, and were asked to identify the issue or conflict that they wanted toact out. Then we asked them to identify the characters involved in this issue. Each person then chose a character that they would act out - and we made sure that people were acting out characters that are not familiar to them. This way the activity gave them an opportunity to be in someone else's head (which is important for strategic thinking and understanding your adversaries and allies). The participants then had some time to practice being their characters - we practices walking, talking and listening in-character. It was so fun! 

Then participants had only a few minutes to discuss the main plot of their drama. When their time was up, each group performed their drama in front of the other group. The first group focused on the issue of early marriage of young girls. The characters included the girl, the father and mother of the girl, the community leader, and an NGO worker trying to change the situation. Though the drama did not end with the issue being resolved, it still allowed the actors to see the issue from many different perspectives. 

The next group's issue was police corruption. The two stars of the play were the traffic police officer and the driver that was forced to bribe the officer in order to drive past a roadblock. The characters included passengers in the car, the police officer's boss, a journalist and an activist. By working with the journalist and mobilizing drivers, the activist was able to organize a demonstration in front of the police station and chased the head of police from his office! Everyone was laughing and enjoying the creative depictions of the characters - and we were happy to end on such a great note!

The feedback from this activity was wonderful. The participants are interested in bringing the use of drama back to their communities to use on their issue area. New Tactics offers several examples of using drama for education and action. We offer two Tactical Notebooks: Using Action Theatre in India to discussion and debate on community issues; and Using Popular Theater to Break the Silence Around Violence Against Women from Senegal. Additionally, we have an online dialogue on Using Theatre for Human Rights Education and Action.

I have had great sessions with campers introducing the Tactical Mapping Tool...more to come in my next post!