I am a senior at Amherst College applying for the Watson fellowship. My cousin actually live in the same building as Arlene, your grandmother. She had mentioned your project to my cousin this summer, at the same time when I was working on my proposal… such a small world!

I am planning on working on the use of hip hop in healing social ills. For now, I am proposing to go to Uganda, Brazil, and South Africa (I might replace this with Zimbabwe). Since I need to submit the proposal by the end of September, I can add or replace the countries before then. I want to visit and study different groups that are using hip hop in health for anything from health education to getting kids out of gangs and even healing trauma in post conflict regions (similar to your project). I am picking the countries based on the programs and artists I can find in those countries. I will divide the project into three parts:
1. Hip-Hop in preventative health: HIV awareness, health education…
2. Hip-Hop in onset of social ill: Getting kids out of gangs, raising awareness about victims of social ills, activism…
3. Hip-Hop in healing after the onset of social ill: Healing trauma in post conflict societies, helping former child soldiers…

I was hoping that you would help connect me with groups that you know who are working on this issue (artists, NGO’s…). Also, if you had any ideas on the direction of the project, I would love to hear them. I would appreciate any help. Thank you.

Peace and Love,

Elias