Transition

This post is to let everyone know that I will no longer be producing Tiyeni Tipewe on Radio Yako. I am going to take some time to explore ways to bring communities in different countries together around issues of health and social justice. I will of course continue to share the stories I brought back from Malawi, as I believe that they need to be heard.

I have really appreciated the opportunity to produce this show, and am grateful to Radio Yako for creating the space for it. THANK YOU to all of the listeners for your support and participation. Please check the blog for news on how this project is growing, and for updated information from people interviewed in Malawi last year. Keep in touch!

Dorothy

A few days ago, I learned that one of the women I interviewed last summer, Dorothy, passed away on October 20th. She was HIV positive and after discovering in August that she had full-blown cancer, she left Lilongwe for her village so that she could die there.

I met Dorothy through Tilerane Orphan Care, one of the community-based organizations that The Pendulum Project and the Face-to-Face AIDS Project assist. She was a volunteer there and always made me feel very welcome whenever Arichie and I visited. Our interview took place in her house, with her seven year old son sitting a few feet away, by the door. Through our conversation, I found out that he didn't know her status, though she had been speaking freely of it in his presence. Dorothy's husband had died five years earlier, and so their eight sons are now struggling to get by in their absence.

Her death, and the amount of time it took me to know of it, brought me to tears the other day. As I wondered about my ability to do this work, good friends I've met through this project reminded me that Dorothy's death and the difficulties her sons are facing only reinforce the importance of getting people's stories heard. And of staying connected. For information on how you can help Dorothy's children, please contact Ken Wong, the director of Face to Face AIDS, at: director@facetofaceaids.org