A powerful documentary…which howled for our attention. With documentaries like this telling us how it is, none of us can claim we weren’t told what was happening.
2006, 52 minutes, RTÉ
Eleven-year-old Nancy is having another one of those days. She doesn’t have the energy to play with her sisters and brothers. Nancy is HIV positive. Her father died of AIDS and her mother is HIV positive. She lives in a dark toilet sized corrugated hut with her large family in the Kibera, Nairobi, reported to be one of the worst slums on this planet. Welcome to the reality of life for millions of people who live and die with HIV and Aids in Africa.
This one-hour documentary spends time with Nancy and others from Kenya and Malawi whose lives have been taken over by HIV and AIDS. Thousands and thousands of people from these regions have died – they call them the missing generation, these includes teachers, nurses and doctors – parents gone leaving behind vast numbers of orphans. Families and communities have been torn apart and social structures wiped out. But within this bleakness we also see hope for the future. While spending time on the ground with former Irish nurse Mary Donohoe and her small organisation The Rose Project whose sole purpose is to give financial and medical support to some of the smaller HIV and Aids support groups in these countries we witness a courageous local response to this pandemic. Local women are leading the way and we are seeing real glimmers of hope from within these communities.
Credits
Narrator – Andrew Bennett
Executive Producer – Martha O’Neill
Production Manager: Maria Collins
Camera – Richard Kendrick
Sound – Mick Cassidy
Editor – Brenda Morrissey
Producer/Director – Adrian McCarthy
WINNER Radharc Award 2009. Best Television Programme.