PEOPLE
Vice President Justin Malewazi was educated at Columbia University. He started his career as a biology teacher and worked his way up to Minister of Education and became an advisor to President Banda. After being dismissed from the Banda Government, he joined the United Democratic Front, which was then an underground political party. He was elected Vice-president in 1994 on a ticket headed by President Bakini Maluzi.
He has personally experienced the sorrow caused by the disease. He lost an adopted daughter who died of AIDS in 2001. He is a strong advocate of the government taking the lead in both prevention and treatment of AIDS. He speaks publicly about AIDS whenever he can and encourages other members of the government to do the same. "We are all living with AIDS."
Catherine Phiri founded SASO, an AIDS outreach organization in 1995. SASO volunteers supply medication and give counseling to people inr villages in the Salima District. Catherine says her purpose is: "we want them to die with dignity." SASO also provides free AIDS testing and aid to orphans with counseling food, and school fees.
Catherine has been HIV+ for 12 years, and at the time I first filmed her, she had not started taking antiretroviral drugs (ARVs)
Catherine has recovered from the illness seen in the second part of the film. She is now taking antiretroviral drugs. SASO has grown with the help of aid from a number of donors. UNICEF is their principal sponsor.
GlaxoSmithKlein has given SASO a small grant which helps them with the home care program.
Marylien Mulemba is the director of Medicines San Frontiers (Doctors Without Borders). MSF runs a small program that uses antiretroviral drugs to treat HIV+ villagers. The early results are very positive, with dramatic improvements in the health of patients. Married to a Malawian, Marylien has great insight into what needs to be done to fight AIDS in Malawi.
Geoffrey Mhone Is from the Northern district of Malawi. He was trained in counseling and public speaking. He came to Blantyre, Malawi's largest city, to join his brothers. He married Lucy in 1999, and they have one daughter named "Reality". Geoff and Lacy are both HIV positive. Geoff was a founding member of Youth Ambassadors, a group that did preventive AIDS education in the schools.
Geoff is now a councilor for Medicines Sans Frontiers, working with people who have tested positive for AIDS. He helps them with questions about nutrition, sex, and lifestyle. Recently, Geoff has lost weight and worries what might happen to his wife and young daughter if he started getting sick.
Harry Nchasta works as an electrician. Due to the deaths in his extended family, Henry has more than a dozen people to feed, including his wife's two sisters and their children. He knows about AIDS, but says that children in school "can't hear anything (about AIDS) because they are too hungry."