Yesterday's great news is that people are getting their appointment letters. There are many families (around 50?) who know an older child (hosting or met at an orphanage during their first adoption) and are adopting them. The SDA is giving these familiies priority which is why they are getting appointment letters first.

The first few families to get the appointment letters had to pay about $50. SDA sent them COD. However UPS seems to be billing people rather then asking for money when delivering the letter.

And some families have gotten their appointment letter via regular US mail. ???

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Here are the Ukrainian news stories that I am reading now...

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AIDS

AIDS and HIV are a huge issue in Ukraine. I am glad to see that it will start to show up in plots on Ukrainian TV shows. There is an estimated 500,000 people in Ukraine living with HIV. World Bank supended a $60 million HIV prevention and treatment grant to Ukraine in April 2006. But Ukraine may get the grant back in September. My fingers are crossed.

I love the story about John Robinson. He is riding his bike from Ukraine to England to raise money for the Makiivka AIDS Orphanage near Donetsk.

Here is a little bit more about how/why AIDS will be showing up on Ukrainian TV shows and movies.

reflects a broad shift in the way health experts convey information to the American public on a range of diseases, particularly AIDS. They no longer rely solely on preachy public service ads popping up at odd hours ontelevision and on billboards: "This is your brain on drugs." Today, health messages are routinely "embedded" into story lines of TV's most popular entertainment shows, in much the same way that marketers prominently place products such as beer and designer labels on shows.

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Global collaborations among government, public health organizations and media companies have turned the entertainment industries on several continents into one of the most powerful public health communications tools of the 21st century.

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Next week in Toronto at the 16th International Conference on AIDS, Roedy, Kaiser and actor/activist Richard Gere will showcase a cluster of major media partnerships, involving some of the biggest entertainment companies in the USA, the Caribbean, Africa, India, Russia and Ukraine.

From: AIDS drives plots on TV