Media Training Consulting and Writing Skills Courses

It appears this is my year for rubbing shoulders with statesmen, as I recently had the great privilege of once again meeting President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalyn Carter, who I’ve had the honour of working with since 2005 through my work with the Carter Center Journalism Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism: http://www.cartercenter.org/health/mental_health/fellowships/index.html

They were in Johannesburg for a meeting of The Elders: www.theelders.org which is an extraordinary group comprising 10 ‘elder’ retired statesmen and women, whose aim is to give back individually and as a group, by using their collective wisdom and power.

It was a heady experience being in a room surrounded by four Nobel Peace Laureates, five ex heads of State, as well as people like the amazing Ela Bhatt who runs the largest women’s trade union group in India with over 1000 000 members, along with setting up the Indian School of Micro-finance for Women.

Our very own beloved Archbishop Desmond Tutu is also part of this group, together with Graca Machel, whose interests lie particularly in human rights and educational issues.

I also had the pleasure that morning of having coffee with Sir Richard Branson, without whose original idea The Elders would never have come into being. I have written an article on this experience which I will post shortly after it has been published. (watch this space)…

Other happenings are a joint working project with the dynamic Nkini Phasa of Bakone Communications which sees me involved with the media side of launching a new vaccine onto the South African market, aimed at drastically reducing certain childhood illnesses.

At last the Magazine Publishers Association of South Africa’s website is up and running – do take a look and read about the courses I will be running for them – www.mpasa.net.

And of course my work wouldn’t be complete without the chance of sounding off on www.bizcommunity.com/Blog/MarionScher/2010/7/5/BlackBerry-writing--watch-out

Two courses running in July/August – Writing for the Media and Professional Writing Skills – see Course Information.

Lastly - wondering if we can keep up the incredible ‘gees’ that we’ve had for the last month of the Soccer World Cup. We can unite as a nation and let’s hope we never forget this!

Warmest regards,
Marion Scher