The Global Fund

The Global Fund reached out to 21C Media Group for consulting services, with the innovative idea of using Puccini’s La bohème—perhaps the world’s most famous opera—to raise awareness of the continued threat and spread of tuberculosis within South Africa and around the world. 21C worked together with the Global Fund and Isango Ensemble, an internationally recognized Cape Town-based touring company, on a touring production of La bohème with a cast drawn from the townships of Cape Town, where tuberculosis is a daily fact of life.

The successful West End run starred Pauline Malefane as Mimì; born and raised in Khayelitsha, one of the larger South African townships, her performance served as a reminder of the struggles faced by the millions of people still battling this illness worldwide.