Thanks to her irrespressible optimism, her sense of humor …and her agent, the feisty little 90 year old has been helping people around the world to cope with life’s toughest dilemmas for almost 10 years. She has been to 3 South American countries, Mexico, France, Spain, Holland, the US, Singapore, Macao and Japan (3 times). But in order to get to Africa, we need your help.

Victoria won prizes and stars in Edinburgh in 2007, where she was seen by the director of HIFA (Harare International Festival of the Arts). Yes – Zimbabwe. As soon as the name is uttered, people shutter. But Zimbabwe is not Robert Mugabe, it is a country – with people in it.

Here is what the festival director, Manuel Bagorro, wrote to me:

“When I first attended a performance of ‘Victoria’ my feeling was that this show could change things. I believe that the Festival has an incredibly important role in Zimbabwe to challenge pre-conceptions and celebrate human compassion and empathy in a country where the struggle to simply survive makes these qualities easy to subvert. Zimbabwe has the lowest average life expectancy in the world – partly due to the AIDS pandemic but also because of poverty and terrifyingly poor health services. Old age is something of an act of defiance. ‘Victoria’ will be read by Zimbabwean audiences as a statement about survival against the odds and an attitude to life that resonates powerfully with the Festival’s theme this year – THE ART OF DETERMINATION.”

Click her to find out more about the Harare International Festival of the Arts.

We have received partial funding from the Canada Council for the Arts – which is encouraging! But as you know only too well, the Harper government has cut funding for touring…and even had they not made these cuts, Zimbabwe is not on Canada’s list of priorities.

We need $15,000. If we end up with more money than we need (Victoria has fed my optimism!) I will hand it over, personally, to the artistic community of Zimbabwe. If we don't raise enough to bring the show, I will go with one or two from my team, to teach, and perhaps present an excerpt.

This is a chance to be able to do something other than wince while watching TV. Help me (and Victoria) do something…please.