Teaching Haitian Tent Cities With Soap Operas

For a lot of parents in the U.S., the idea of leaving your children to watch soap operas smacks of bad parenting. But for people in Haiti's tent cities, it might not be such a bad idea.

A new project financed by the United Nations and its partners is taking soap operas in Haiti to a whole new level. Projected unto glowing screens, these locally produced soaps are being used to inform Haitians on how to improve security, sanitation and hygiene in the country's more than 1,000 tent cities.

Previously on Global Poverty, we've written about how similar TV-centered efforts have been used to improve everyday lives in communities across the world. Farmers swapping videos to share farming methods is just one example — prime-time soaps focused on health issues is another.

In Haiti, where media is also abundant, there is chance that it can also be a powerful tool of social change. Back in March, for example, I traveled to the Place St. Pierre tent city and witnessed dozens of kids clustered inches from a giant screen. They watched music videos, commercials and the Haitian drama Les Dix Raisons Pour Tromper Son Mari (“Ten Reasons to be Unfaithful to Your Husband”), but they could just as easily be watching something educational.

The UN's soap operas are expected to have a similar draw, but with a more positive impact. The series — Under the Sky — will feature 16 episodes, to be aired three nights a week in 16 camps. Other organizations, such as FilmAid, are also developing similar projects.

Haiti's initiative follows in the footsteps of shows like Kenya's The Team, a soap opera about the struggles of a soccer team, which was used to show how Kenyans how it's possible to overcome tribal rivalries.

As John Marks, who produces The Team, says, “You don't watch an episode and drop your submachine gun. But you can change the environment so it becomes more and more difficult to be in violent conflict."

In Haiti, where the threat of violence continues to loom within the country's swelling tent cities, the program could easily become not just an entertaining way to fight poverty — but a way to avoid conflict, too.

Photo Credit: Huáscar Robles