 Director and presenter, James Goldcrown, makes an emotional journey through the shantytowns of South Africa to discover the true cost of HIV and AIDS on people without access to even the most basic healthcare and the impact the disease is having on the next generation. Join James on his epic journey ‘To Die No More’ right here on your Community Channel.
In St Francis, Johannesburg, a remarkable hospice is offering something denied to so many of Africa’s AIDS patients - dignity. Here the staff are able to offer companionship, comfort and some relief to those who have succumb to full-blown AIDS. Even those unable to pay for their healthcare are never turned away from this extraordinary hospice that copes with some 30–35 deaths every month.
Visiting a number of the region’s countless orphanages, James learns about how children are frequently abandoned by their mothers who, knowing themselves to be HIV positive, are unable to even think about caring for another child. Whole communities are being torn apart by the breakdown of families and the growing number of orphans. In a bitter twist to this heart-wrenching story, we hear how many babies who test positive at birth are actually HIV negative once their mother’s antibodies have left their systems.
 Children of HIV positive parents are often also abandoned to protect the anonymity of the parent’s HIV status. The stigma and misinformation that surrounds the disease has driven patients to hide their illnesses, prevented open discussion, suppressed appropriate education and significantly increased the spread of the disease throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Very few people are prepared to adopt an HIV positive child, leaving countless children in the hands of the seriously under-funded network of orphanages and ostracised from their peers.
In one of the informal settlements in the heart of Jamestown, James meets several volunteer carers working amongst their communities in the shantytowns, where adequate healthcare is almost impossible to find. One volunteer is Margaret, who treats numerous HIV positive people without any support and with a dwindling number of volunteers to assist her.
Margaret pleads with anyone who will listen to help her care for the patients that constantly require her help and support to provide them with basic medicines which she funds with her pension. She says, “Help these people to get food, they are sick so if they don’t eat their immune system gets low, so they won’t get well. I am not old and have been struggling alone and no one came forward to help. People have been coming to take pictures of what we are doing here. Every time they are here to take pictures, but I don’t know what they are doing with them because so far as I don’t see how they are helping. They have offered no help... they don’t help us with anything. I’ve had to take my own money to buy food for these people. I spend my own money for these patients.”
Don’t miss your opportunity to watch ‘To Die No More’ right here on Community Channel.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 06 March 2006 )
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