About 30 students and teachers of the Nursing School of Coimbra (ESEnfC) participated during the weekend of September 20th and 21st in the Training Course Theatre of the Oppressed.
The Theatre of the Oppressed is a method of exercises, games and techniques which brings theatre closer to the social needs of the population and allows for the active participation of the audience, who is invited to changes roles with the actors and suggest alternatives to the situations and conflicts presented.
This course is included in the training period of the nursing students who are part of the White Ribbon project. The aim of this project is to reduce violence (through peer education), starting with the violence inflicted during the dating phase, and to promote gender equality and equality of opportunities.
In this course, lectured by psychologist Hugo Cruz, the students of the ESEnfC tried to understand how to use the theatre as a strategy to provide information regarding violence against women, so that, later on, the students will be able to write plays on their own and use them within the scope of this project. The course also discussed the possible applications of the theatre of the oppressed in the area of the education of the population in terms of health.
The path suggested to the youngsters who were part of this White Ribbon Project included the strategy of peer education, a model in which youngsters train other youngsters.
The project, always supervised by teachers, contemplates the training of volunteers from both sexes (students of the Nursing degree course), who will promote, together with their colleagues, internal information campaigns at the ESEnfC and, afterwards, with youths and teenagers from secondary education schools. They will promote and develop the training of other peer educators of these educational contexts.
The course took place in Campus A of the ESEnfC.
