Performance by Baaba Maal for TICAH (The Trust for Indigenous Culture and Health)

Submitted by Mary Ann Burris who was with the Foundation in 1991-2003, working in Knowledge, Creativity and Freedom and in the Reproductive Health Program.

I keep meaning to find the time to share what I have been doing since I left the Ford Foundation in 2003 with LAFF colleagues. I am embarrassed to say that, except for joining with a lifetime membership, I have not been very communicative. My apologies. In the years since 2003, I have been fully engaged in running and growing a small nonprofit in Kenya called TICAH, the Trust for Indigenous Culture and Health. All of our work has to do with the connections between culture and health. Our programs include work on herbal medicine and nutrition for AIDS-affected families, a medicine plant garden and peace shrine at the National Museums of Kenya, a sexuality project called “My Body, My Choice” which started as work with HIV-positive women's groups, but which now includes work with a wide range of ages and orientations. We have a training and outreach program in Nairobi slums that focuses on household security' food, services, health, safety, gardens, and another focusing on HIV-positive children and their needs in which we use a lot of art, meditation, music, and play. One of our earliest projects was collecting treatment experiences of positive friends, colleagues, and acquaintances. We have done this work in Kenya, Uganda, Senegal, South Africa, India, China, Thailand, and the USA so far. As part of this “Listening To Those Who Live It” program, we have been painting body maps to share our stories. Body maps are life-size self portraits that tell our stories of healing and illness, stigma and strength. We have been trying to bring body mapping to HIV support groups in the USA for a couple of years now. They have been exhibited in London and Berlin so far. We have found a partner called Urban Zen, started by Donna Karan, and they have offered us space in their NY gallery in November. They have also helped to secure the help of Baaba Maal, Senegalese musician, and Bajah and the Dry Eye Crew, from Sierre Leone, who have agreed to do a fund-raiser concert for TICAH at the Urban Zen gallery in New York on June 15.