1. Background to the project
2. Introducing the area of study
3. The logistics of carrying out the study
4. A literature review on participatory playmaking
5. Methodological approaches
6. The challenges of work-shopping plays with communities in social education
7. Bibliography

1. The background to the project

I am a Malawian student who has previously worked on two Entertainment-Education projects in Malawi on issues concerning girls' education, reproductive health and maternal and child health. This work involved researching, acting in plays in villages and writing radio plays. I grew up in rural Malawi where I used to see my mother wake up at around 4 a.m. everyday to draw water from the river. She would also wake up my sisters, younger than myself, to help her clean dishes. My father and I, the only son, would sleep until he reminded me to sweep the surroundings. The women would prepare breakfast and heat water for bathing. My father would bath first, followed by myself. The sisters would come later, which often resulted in them being late for school. Coming back from school, I would take my lunch and disappear to play soccer with friends. My sisters had to do the dishes, draw more water from the river, go to the maize mill or carry out whichever 'women's' job there was. When mother fell sick, the girls had to stay at home to do all the 'women's' chores. I also had an opportunity to tease my sisters at the end of school semesters as I usually performed much better than them.

The Entertainment-Education Course project provided a springboard from which to raise theoretical and methodological questions regarding the gender-based distribution of chores and aspects of participatory education and empowerment. On this project, I worked with an Honours student, Lungile Dlamini. She comes from Swaziland and I found her partnership beneficial as she comprehends Zulu, a language and culture very similar to her Swazi origins.

This was to enable young people to critically question how gender power relations affect the domestic economy in patriarchal communities.

· To establish what the community refers to as 'men's' jobs and 'women's' jobs.

· To establish community attitudes and perceptions regarding the relationship between gender and household chores.

· To produce a workshop play on the gendered nature of the domestic economy, spiced with songs and dances.

The anticipated result was the empowerment of community youth so that they would take the initiative in engaging in critical dialogue about the gendered distribution activities in the domestic economy and its consequences.

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