DIABETES EDUCATION AND POPULAR THEATRE: THE CASE OF TAFI AGOME COMMUNITY

ABSTRACT It is projected that high rate of death attributed to the cause of diabetes shall rise by 2030. Until recently, however, issues relating to ill health, especially in the Sub-Saharan Africa used to be dominated by infectious diseases and not non communicable diseases like diabetes. The Ghana Diabetes Care Model is the approach used thus far in diabetes education. This investigation explores the Popular Theatre process as a possible complement to the ‘top down’ approach of the Ghana Diabetes Care Model. The method is a seven-step procedure that is both democratic and participatory in nature and uses the community people as performers. The existing knowledge gap is that local native proficiency in diabetes education is deficient. There is, therefore, the need for a multidisciplinary praxis to curb it. Thus, the study sets out to ascertain the effectiveness of the use of Popular Theatre techniques in diabetes education in the Tafi Agome Community, Volta Region, using Paulo Freire’s theory of conscientisation as framework. The findings of this enquiry reveal that Popular Theatre resonates well with the community and is able to conscientise people to own the technique. Consequently, the study highlights the efficacy of Popular Theatre in health communication and contributes to the paucity of knowledge on theatre as a viable health education methodology.