Healthcare professionals working in the field of sexual health are always on the lookout for new, fresh approaches to help them get the safer sex message across and international dance charity dance4life certainly fits that description. During October and November the charity is set to take the UK by storm with an exciting approach in delivering key messages about HIV and social responsibility targeting young people. Durex HCP caught up with Sara Smith, one of the charity's UK coordinators to find out more.

dance4Life was created in the Netherlands 2003 as the brainchild of two international marketers - Dennis Karpes and Ilco van der Linde. They saw the need to engage with young people to stop the continuing spread of HIV and AIDS. They believed it was time to make a difference globally, but to do this, they needed the support and help of young people - the generation of today.

With the support of Durex, dance4life created an educational dance programme that uses the medium of dance to communicate a poignant message about HIV. Sara Smith explains:

"Dance is a social and fun thing to do and a massive part of youth culture. By getting a group of young people together to take part in a dance routine, dance4life has the perfect opportunity to broach the subject of HIV and improve their awareness in a way that is relevant to them. Not only can they have fun, they can learn about what they can do to protect themselves against the virus."

Making Dance happen

Since its humble beginnings, dance4life now enjoys global success and the initiative is now targeting expansion in the UK. The project has one core belief that drives the success of the charity: the belief that HIV and AIDS can be stopped if young people have the power to stand up and negotiate their own life choices. dance4life believe this can only be done if learning is made accessible.

Dance workshops are held in schools across the globe from Africa and Asia to Europe and America, and reach a huge target audience. The UK tour has just started in Scotland, and the team are visiting 35 schools and universities nationwide, finishing in Southwark London.

Talking from the heart - inspiring young people

The dance4life workshops engage with young people in a both an emotive and positive manner. During a workshop, an HIV positive speaker talks to the young people about how their personal experience of HIV has affected their life:

"We inspire young people by talking candidly about the issues. Not only does this improve awareness, it removes the stigma of talking about a taboo subject. One of the contributing factors to dance4life's success is that our education is provided in a fun, physical way while we communicate important messages about HIV at the same time." Sara states.

Educating young people to make the difference

The team at dance4life are not only keen to share their experiences, they also believe that educating young people about social responsibility is vital:

"It's about shifting the emphasis that HIV is a country specific problem. We help young people to see that HIV has a relevance to their own life and we show them that HIV is the responsibility of everyone to make the difference." she adds.

A great success of the project has been in moving young people to proactively make a stand against HIV and AIDS. The charity asks young people to become 'agents4change' by encouraging them to improve awareness amongst their peers and family. This can be as simple as holding a school assembly or organising a lunchtime discussion group.

Dancing their way from strength to strength

The workshop finishes with the young people being taught a dance called 'The Drill', a fun dance with popularity to rival the 'Macarena'. This year participants will also be invited to join the dance4life team at the Counter Culture Project at London Bridge on November 27th for the 'BIG dance event'. At the event, 'The Drill' will be danced in unison with hundreds other young people from across the country and thousands of others from 28 countries via a live satellite link-up.

"Each country has its own dance section and the opportunity to put its own dance twist in that segment. You could say it is similar to the Eurovision song contest... only better! Dancing 'The Drill' is more than a dance, it is a positive celebration of all that young people have achieved in combating HIV and AIDS." Sara says.

Examples of people dancing 'The Drill' are readily available on YouTube.

Join the fun

Durex has been an enthusiastic supporter of dance4life globally, and would like to encourage HCPs in the UK to join in the fun and help spread the news about the dance4life:

"It is a big help to have Durex on board as the condom donations allow us to provide young people with means to protect themselves." says Sara.

HCPs can find a range of promotional materials including clinic posters and information packs, on the dance4life website.

While dance4life continues to grow each year, Sara believes that with the support of HCPs (like you!), they can encourage more young people to get involved:

"dance4life offers a real education, and ties in with the key messages that HCPs would like to communicate to their younger clients. HCPs can help by telling the young people who visit their clinic about dance4life and help by putting up a poster or by dispensing the pocket packets of condoms that display our logo."

If you would like to know more about dance4Life, please visit their website www.dance4life.co.uk

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Sara Smith is the UK Media and Communications Officer for dance4life. She has a background in journalism, and direct experience of working first hand with children affected by HIV & AIDS in orphanages across Africa.

Article release date: 27th October 2010