Letter

I have recently returned from South Africa where I have been helping with the launch of the Artists for Human Rights "Break the Silence" HIV/AIDS Billboard and Print Portfolio Project at Durban City Art Gallery and the National Gallery of Art in Cape Town. Whilst the billboards, with the help of Corporate sponsorship, are slowly but surely finding their way out into the communities of South Africa, the print portfolio will tour next year to a variety of countries and locations highlighting the need for a global effort to help those who are suffering from the HIV/AIDS pandemic. I am also pleased and proud to say that later next year the "Break the Silence" print portfolio will be seen here in my native Scotland through Duncan of Jordonstone Art School, of the University of Dundee. Having Dundee as a location for the exhibition, has another vitally important role, because Dundee, in conjunction with the Welcome Trust, have recently built a new science block and are initiating new micro biological research into the HIV virus. I am not a scientist, so I cannot say exactly how this research will be undertaken. However, I would urge all of those Pambazuka readers who are specialist science trained, and are wishing to pursue research in the field, that they look up the University of Dundee on the internet and contact the science department of that excellent University, and ask what background the science faculty is looking for to join in the proposed research programme. Meanwhile, all those readers who are in the vicinity of Durban and Cape Town, please do look in to the "Break the Silence" exhibition, and with the Pambuka editor's permission, I shall keep all readers informed of the various countries and locations to which the exhibition travels.

* Alex Flett, Kirkcudbright, Scotland