15280: Feldman: Arts Coalition to Address HIV/AIDS (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Janet Feldman <kaippg@earthlink.net>

Dear Friends,
Hello, and many thanks to Greg Chamberlain for his posting on the GFATM
grant recently given to Haiti to address HIV/AIDS. I thought I would take
this opportunity to post about a coalition I have been organizing, composed
of individuals and groups who utilize the arts to address HIV/AIDS (and
related concerns like poverty, hunger, lack of education and healthcare),
especially in terms of education and prevention. I have been doing this for
about 6 months, in my capacity as director of the international wing of a
Kenyan AIDS NGO, as the arts are essential components of our work in Kenya
and Africa, and I have discovered in my organizing that this is true
worldwide. The coalition now has representatives from 10 African countries,
India, Pakistan, the Ukraine, Canada, Australia, the UK, Bangladesh, the
Netherlands, and more people signing up weekly!

I would very much love some artists or other creative folks in or from
Haiti--or those who might be using Haitian art in HIV/AIDS programs
already--to be members of the coalition, so please contact me at
kaippg@earthlink.net if interested, and I and we will welcome you
wholeheartedly. It's free and there is nothing to do except get mailings
(you don't even have to read them, haha!); current members are discussing
festivals and country-organizing and other types of activities and events,
and a website and listserv are planned, so activism is also encouraged if so
inclined. The arts have proven to be (yet again!) both life-enhancing and
life-saving, this time with regard to HIV/AIDS prevention and education, and
it seems fitting that Haitian art--so inspirational and deeply-moving, let
alone beautiful--might be or will be front-and-center on this issue. With
many thanks and all best wishes, and to dramatic dreams on creative themes!

Janet Feldman, Director
KAIPPG/International
kaippg@earthlink.net , http://www.kaippg.org