After months of planning and preparation, the Dying for Gold UK tour officially begun last Thursday. To keep everyone updated on the campaign, screenings, meetings with academics and media and the tour more broadly, we have been keeping a daily blog on the Dying For Gold website.
Below are a few extracts from the blog, that can be seen in full on the Dying For Gold website. We will be updating the blog daily from the city that we are in, so keep an eye out for future posts!
​Day 1: Edinburgh
On Wednesday, we left the bright lights of London ​and headed north by car to the beautiful city of Edinburgh, ahead of the first screening of ‘They Go To Die’ on Thursday. ​After a nights rest at a local, quintessentially “Scottish” B&B, we got up early to pick up Jonathan Smith-the film’s director- from the airport, before hitting the road to start campaigning! Although the weather was grey and glum, that didn’t dampen our spirits or interest in the campaign from Edinburgh’s students who were keen to learn more about the tb epidemic in southern Africas mines and what they could do to help.
Day 2: Newcastle
We bid our farewells to majestic Edinburgh on Friday morning and took the scenic route to Newcastle. Pete from Medsin kindly put us up and accompanied us to the student’s union where we set up our ‘FREE GOLD’ stall. Our golden action cards caught the magpie eyes of many of the students who were shocked to discover the extent of the TB epidemic in Southern Africa.
Later we headed to Newcastle’s Side Cinema where we were almost to capacity, thanks to the hard work from Medsin and RESULTS’ group members Ellie, Ian and Frances amongst others. The audience were impressed with the film and asked interesting questions about establishing ‘fair trade’ and ‘lung safe gold’. People were keen to sign action cards and put their names to the concrete set of policies we are demanding from Anglo Gold Ashanti.
Day 3: Leeds
On Saturday morning we rose early and left our host’s house in Newcastle to make the two hour journey down the M1 to Leeds.
We shot through the Yorkshire countryside with a spring in our step after the success of the screening in Newcastle. We arrived at the home of our new hosts. Alice and Sarah, at a house filled with Medsin committee members in the characterful Hyde Park area of the city.
The day was as grey and drab as one can imagine so our golden message sparkled with a renewed brightness. The screening was attended by over 100 people who asked some excellent questions on the issue of TB and mining. The messages are now flowing freely from all members of the Dying for Gold team!
Another great day on the road! Tomorrow Jonathan will be doing an interview with the Lancet to discuss our tour and the messages we have about the campaign.
To read the blog in full click here