Description
Lewanika Hospital in Mongu, Zambia is like many other hospitals in sub-Saharan Africa: over half the patients are infected with HIV/AIDS.
Film-maker Sorious Samura and his crew were in Mongu to shoot a documentary designed to bring viewers up close with the everyday reality of AIDS in Africa. To do that he worked for a month as an orderly at Lewanika Hospital, film crew in tow.
This they knew before they set out: Ten per cent of the world’s population but 60 per cent of the people with HIV infection live in sub-Saharan Africa. More shocking are the numbers by gender: 75 per cent of women with the disease live in the region. In Zambia, almost a million people are living with HIV, 10 per cent of the total population. The drop in life expectancy shows the devastation AIDs has brought to Zambia: from 60 years before the AIDS epidemic it has now fallen to just 37 years. In March, the UN released a report with an estimate that there could be 89 million new cases of AIDS in Africa over the next two decades.
The documentary gives us some idea of what it is like to be infected with AIDS in Africa, for women and men, for adults and children. Samura also finds that AIDS has found its “perfect victims” in Africa. Poverty provides the first social opportunity for this disease to spread. Samura meets victims who feel the stigma is so great that they cannot admit they are infected, even to their families. But what most upsets him is meeting HIV-infected men who see nothing wrong with continuing to have unprotected sex. Some viewers may consider some scenes in Living with AIDS difficult to watch. Viewer discretion is advised. Produced for 4, UK.
Awards: 2007 One World Media Award “Broadcast Journalist of the Year”.