[1] KIPT uses puppetry, participatory educational theatre and folk media in life skills promotion, community education and cultural communication that, according to KIPT, engages people into interactive discourse.
[2][3] KIPT was initially called CHAPS (Community Health Awareness Puppeteers), which began in 1994 when a group of South African puppeteers, led by Gary Friedman, director of the African Research and Educational Development Program, were invited to Kenya by Dr Eric Krystall of FPPS in Nairobi to train local Kenyans to start their own program to combat HIV-AIDS in Kenya.
A local program of "Puppets Against Aids" was set up in Nairobi and twenty years later, the group has expanded and strengthened their training, resources and outreach.
Now, hundreds of puppeteers continue their outreach work through Eastern and Central Africa.
[citation needed] It has initiated puppetry projects in Nigeria, Eritrea, Sudan, Somalia, Uganda and Liberia and participated in collaborative puppetry projects in Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, South Africa, Finland, Denmark and Australia.