Hello Dear Folks!

My apologies for not being more "alive" lately:  I am currently a full-time caregiver for my father, who is recovering from a stroke, so I will be offline a lot until 2008. I'm in the process of creating a more interactive website and newsletter for ActALIVE, and would love to hear from all of you in the meantime.

I'm wondering what you are doing for World AIDS Day 2007 (Dec 1), and also in general on arts to address HIV/AIDS and sustainable-development issues?

Hopefully you'll post and let us know, and sign up for the ActALIVE forum too (actalive-subscribe@yahoogroups.com). In early 2008 I will be working more actively to link that group and the one I have started here at Razoo, hopefully with more collaboration and interaction emerging.

In the meantime and always, artistic affections and appreciation always, Janet

The miss red ribbon

The event took place a mid pomp and color the day being perfect for the function with clear sky’s and god weather for people to able to walk from home to the Nakuru Players Theatre where is the home of performing arts in Nakuru town which is the 4 largest town/city  in Kenya.
The mood was carnival as people trickled into the hall 1 by 1 accompanied by there families the target audience (youths) were there in large numbers waiting to see the models and participate in the catwalks also. The hall was booming with music and the young people dancing before the event got way as the models went through there last paces and instructions.

The models having been beautified by young girls from Beverly Beauty college started walking down the walkway in different attires I won’t go into details about the categories because I know you know about beauty pageants, but the interesting thing about this pageant was that the models covered every person in the world and they you did not have of certain weight to participate in the pageant, age was no limit also here, the status did not matter either and the best was that most of the models were HIV positive and they had taken the brave step of telling others about there HIV status and they were beautiful am telling you. The day was a success in that many people turned up for the event and supported the models by cheering them on the stage from the young ones to the old models who turned up they received support from the audience, because of the theme about reduction of stigma within Nakuru town the older ladies who are HIV positive turned up for the rehearsals before this day and they mingled with young girls who were also modeling this encouraged more young girls between the ages of 16-25 to come out and model especially the ones who are HIV positive, outspoken woman who is 40 years old was the winner and has allowed me to put up her photos here she is spearheading the fight against stigma in  Nakuru town, anyway I will spare you the agony of the stories so that you can look at the attached photos apart from the winner  the other photos some of the models are positive and some are not.

Still in connection to WAD we are going to perform the dance for life dance on Friday 30^th at a park in Nakuru town center for the general public to enjoy it and at the same time be informed about the stigma here in Nakuru.