AIDS-TB Activist Albertina Nyatsi from Swaziland Visits Dallas

HIV/AIDS and TB activist Albertina Nyatsi from Swaziland was coming to Dallas March 9 and 10, so the group went to work finding opportunities for her to speak. We started with the Dallas County Health and Human Services Department and convinced them to hold a press conference on TB. While three health officials spoke on the local and national effects of TB, our RESULTS volunteer, Dr. Marty White, spoke about global TB issues. Seven news outlets were there with six television cameras.

Later in the day, Dr. White participated along with Albertina at an in-service for over thirty health care professionals. Albertina spoke at a local Rotary Club with an interest in TB on the Texas-Mexico border. The following day, we held an outreach meeting. We showed a Doctors Without Borders video on TB in Swaziland, Albertina spoke, and the group wrote 46 letters to our senators. We also picked up a new RESULTS activist.

Albertina concluded her stay by visiting the office of our member of Congress, emphasizing the importance of the FY2011 appropriation funding for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and bilateral TB funding. The skids were greased, and when we asked for the member of Congress to sign on to the Global Fund letter the following week, she did it! Being a new group, having just celebrated our first year in business, we were quite proud of what we accomplished with our first RESULTS visitor.