Mal's dream of a US IAWRT Chapter realized

Arshiya Ahsan has just convented the first meeting of a US chapter of the International Association of Women in Radio & TV! This was a longtime dream of Mal Johnson's. Her close friends Catherine White and Leila Doss were involved in helping get this chapter started. Here are two communications from Arshiya about the meeting. I the second, she says "This is for Mal." - Frieda

Dear Olya,

It is my pleasure to announce that today, May 24th, 2010, seven lovely women with the blessing of Ms. Leila Doss, met in New York in a very simple setting and signed on a simple consent document to form IAWRT-USA Chapter:)

We really enjoyed our meeting and what we accomplished tonight as a really diverse team. This is our first step...

Official details will be sent soon in our May update to the IAWRT international board.

Thank you all for all the support.

Kind regards,
Arshiya Ahsan
IAWRT-USA member

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Knowing Mal Johnson--

My association with IAWRT started at the IAWRT Asian Women's Film Festival in New Delhi organized by Jai Chandiram in 2005. It was a very good first impression of the organization and of an interesting chapter. I was not able to participate much in India because of my work in East-Africa. In the same year, my personal contact with Mal Johnson started which was both wonderful and sad at the same time.

The wonderful part was when I interacted with her briefly during 2005--Mal was organizing the Williamsburg conference that time and I was in Kampala, Uganda. During this short period of intense interaction, I saw her commitment for IAWRT and she really tried her best to bring me to the conference. I had written to her about my ideas of creating awareness about a network like IAWRT in East-Africa and how important it can be for women in the region. I also talked about my travels to Rwanda for IAWRT and she was happy that there were members who wanted to expand IAWRT network.

The sad part was when I came to the US in 2007, Mal was sick, and I tried to meet her but could not:(

Many of us have personal stories and dreams regarding the formation of IAWRT-USA-- I guess, my destiny maybe, just allowed me to bring all these amazing stories together--nothing more, nothing less.

This is for Mal--

Love,
Arshiya