JMS

Reposting an email update from independent radio producer and friend Joe Richman who is behind the remarkable Radio Diaries, which helps people tell their own stories (no producer/host narration) by giving them tape recorders for months or even years to gather the “sounds of daily life.”

Friends of Radio Diaries,

It was one year ago today that Thembi’s AIDS Diary was first broadcast on National Public Radio. Usually, the airdate represents the end of a project. With Thembi’s story, it was the beginning.

This is probably the last email you’ll get from us about Thembi’s AIDS Diary. Before we move on to other documentaries and projects, we wanted to send a final note about what has been the most important, challenging, and satisfying project that Radio Diaries has ever taken on.

Over the past year, Thembi’s AIDS Diary has been broadcast in South Africa (in English, Xhosa, and Zulu), Australia, Canada, the UK, and on BBC World Service, reaching an estimated fifty million listeners around the world. Thembi has traveled across the US and South Africa presenting her story in high schools, universities, clinics, and large public events. Along the way, Thembi met Senator Barack Obama, former President Bill Clinton, and hundreds of young people infected or affected by the disease.

But the high point was two weeks ago, when Thembi was invited to address South Africa’s Parliament. “Accept that AIDS is here,” she told the country’s leaders. The Sunday Independent newspaper reported that Thembi’s presentation was “compelling” and a “step in the right direction” for a country that has been “grappling for years with institutional silence on AIDS.”

That same day ,Thembi went to a high school in the township of Masiphumelele, outside of Cape Town. A 16 year-old HIV-positive girl at the school was being harassed by students, to the point where she had tried to commit suicide. Thembi stood in front of 900 teenagers and worked the crowd in a way we’ve never seen before. Thembi had the students laughing, chanting, and crying. “Something came over me that day.” Thembi told us later. “I saw myself in that girl. And I knew that my words were changing how those students saw people with HIV/AIDS.”

We encourage you to check out Thembi’s blog. It is a funny, insightful, and very personal account of Thembi’s tour of South Africa over the past month.

Visit: http://www.radiodiaries.org

You can also hear the full audio diary, see photos taken over the past year by Thembi’s boyfriend, Melikhaya, and watch a short film about the South Africa tour (including clips from Parliament).

We are also excited to announce that Thembi’s AIDS Diary has won the Overseas Press Club Award for best international radio story of 2006.

CDs of Thembi’s AIDS Diary are now available through our website. The CD includes English, Xhosa, and Zulu versions, and is introduced by Desmond Tutu.

As always, thank you for your support,
Joe

Joe Richman
Radio Diaries

We also have Thembi’s AIDS diary and other great pieces from Joe’s catalog on PRX for stations to broadcast and listeners to hear and review.