Good News from The White House.

In haste I wanted to post up this short video made by Cassie, one of our friends currently working with Drama St.Mary's associates' Theatre for a Change out in Malawi. Both Matt and myself were lucky enough to have been involved in the workshops that lead to the creation of the play shown here and we also went with the women to support the final performance. The bus ride back in triumph was every bit as joyful as depicted here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBd0-pe1uMU

Today, President Bush has pledged a further $48 billion for HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, with much of it going to sub-Sahara Africa. Further good news is that he's lifted a ban (which I didn't even realise existed!) preventing those infected with HIV from entering the States and has lifted the rule that said a third of all US funding on HIV/AIDS must be spent on abstinence projects. All of this is as fantastic as it is suprising!

I'm going to meet up with Patrick Young, the director of Tfac, when we're both back in London in late August to put together a bid for money both to support our students going out to Malawi as intern practitioners and also to co-write a validation document so that African teachers learning these Augusto Boal influenced Tfac techniques can be given a valuable qualification, supporting their work going forward.

I think the video gives some sense of the value of our partnership.