"Tracking the Monster"
I watched the documentary "Tracking the Monster" last night. If anyone isn't familiar with it, it was about the global AIDS epidemic but centered on Africa which happens have more people infected with the disease than any other continent. It followed actress Ashley Judd to Madagascar and singer India Arie to Kenya. Miss Judd went to talk to prostitutes about the AIDS epidemic and educate them on protecting themselves. Miss Arie went to see some of the slums surrounding the city of Nairobi. I have to say that this was one of the most heartbreaking films I have ever seen. Everyone knows about HIV and AIDS but when you see the devastating effects it has had on the population of Africa, it forces you to wonder why there isn't more help available to these people. I learned a lot of interesting facts throughout the program such as 600,000 people a day die in Africa because of AIDS. It makes me sick to think that these people are suffering and there is so little aid out there for them.
While Miss Judd was in Madagascar, she spoke with a group of sex workers and toured their "homes". Their homes were nothing more than a piece of plastic attached to some sort of structure. This is where they took their clients. There were quite a few young ones. By young I mean teenagers. Teenagers! There was one there that was a worker but she was also a peer educator. That means she would go around to various streets and attempt to teach the girls about safe sex.
Madagascar doesn't have a large population that is infected with HIV but they are headed there. The reason there are so little cases is because 1.) people infected are afraid of the consequences of revealing their status and 2.) they are an island, with very few visitors. Miss Judd finally gets some of the women in the peer group to go get tested. Surprisingly, all of them were negative. There was one woman there who was 6 months pregnant and she was terrified she was HIV positive. She wasn't scared so much for herself but for her unborn child.
Miss Judd also convinced an HIV positive woman who was not a prostitute to talk about her situation. She wasn't sure how she got HIV. She doesn't know if she got it before she was married or after. Her husband is also HIV positive along with one of her children. That's how she found out, when her last child was born and turned out to be positive. Neither she nor her husband know which of them had it first. Their other children are not positive, Thank God. She said that she probably has a little bit less than a year to live and at that point she started to cry. I couldn't help but feel so bad for this woman. Their culture is so different that they don't talk about HIV and AIDS. They know its there but once again ignorance comes into play. They think they are safe when in fact they aren't. My heart really went out to her and her family.
India Arie was in Nairobi, Kenya touring some of the slums as well as distributing some bare necessities. She helped feed the many children that have been orphaned by AIDS as well as some of the sick citizens themselves. These kids get one meal a day 5 days a week. They don't have enough money for weekend meals. She sang and played the guitar for an HIV positive man who was extrememly ill and also used to be a very good guitar player. He really liked it.
She also spoke with a 14 year old girl names Celine that was orphaned by AIDS. That was really sad. She was this little girl singing and dancing, leading the other children in the song but there was just something about her that spoke to India. She talked with her and India's mother, who at one point asked Celine what she wanted. She said she wanted a bag to carry her books in. Arie's mother asked her what else she wanted and she said that she wanted to leave with them. I couldn't help but cry at this point. This poor girl was living in hell, and I mean Hell. I would have done anything to help her whether it be smuggle her out of the country, whatever, just something. Arie went back a couple of days later with a bookbag full of clothes and shoes because most of the people there didn't have shoes and they were walking around in sewage. Celine was so happy. I mean you would have thought she received a house, thats how happy she was. There were so many children there that have no one. I wanted to go right over there and bring them all here.
India went to several slum settlements throughout Kenya. She went to this one where she was helping feed some of the sick and she met this woman named Imaculate who was 29 years old with at least 3 kids. She could barely move. She had sores all over her face and in her mouth. They were so painful she could barely eat. Anyway she could speak a little English and India asked her how she got infected. She said that her husband like to sleep around, more or less. Her children didn't know and they didn't say what happened to the husband. I can only imagine that he probably passed away already. She had made memory books for each of her kids so that they knew their family history. They knew who their parents were and when their birthdays were. That was another heartbreaking moment. Then you read shortly after that interview ended that 3 weeks after the interview, she died, orphaning her children.
After watching this I felt so useless. I wanted to do more than donate money. Money is important as far as testing, drugs, food, etc. But these people need humanity. They needed someone to talk to, someone to lean on. I wanted to be there for them and I know I can't be. I wanted to take each and everyone of those kids and bring them here with me. Thats not the answer I know but thats how I felt and still feel while I'm writing this. It really puts things in perspective. We live in a country where yeah the government isn't the best and yeah we still have sick people and homeless people. But its nothing like it is over there. I wish more people were sensitive to this issue.
While Miss Judd was in Madagascar, she spoke with a group of sex workers and toured their "homes". Their homes were nothing more than a piece of plastic attached to some sort of structure. This is where they took their clients. There were quite a few young ones. By young I mean teenagers. Teenagers! There was one there that was a worker but she was also a peer educator. That means she would go around to various streets and attempt to teach the girls about safe sex.
Madagascar doesn't have a large population that is infected with HIV but they are headed there. The reason there are so little cases is because 1.) people infected are afraid of the consequences of revealing their status and 2.) they are an island, with very few visitors. Miss Judd finally gets some of the women in the peer group to go get tested. Surprisingly, all of them were negative. There was one woman there who was 6 months pregnant and she was terrified she was HIV positive. She wasn't scared so much for herself but for her unborn child.
Miss Judd also convinced an HIV positive woman who was not a prostitute to talk about her situation. She wasn't sure how she got HIV. She doesn't know if she got it before she was married or after. Her husband is also HIV positive along with one of her children. That's how she found out, when her last child was born and turned out to be positive. Neither she nor her husband know which of them had it first. Their other children are not positive, Thank God. She said that she probably has a little bit less than a year to live and at that point she started to cry. I couldn't help but feel so bad for this woman. Their culture is so different that they don't talk about HIV and AIDS. They know its there but once again ignorance comes into play. They think they are safe when in fact they aren't. My heart really went out to her and her family.
India Arie was in Nairobi, Kenya touring some of the slums as well as distributing some bare necessities. She helped feed the many children that have been orphaned by AIDS as well as some of the sick citizens themselves. These kids get one meal a day 5 days a week. They don't have enough money for weekend meals. She sang and played the guitar for an HIV positive man who was extrememly ill and also used to be a very good guitar player. He really liked it.
She also spoke with a 14 year old girl names Celine that was orphaned by AIDS. That was really sad. She was this little girl singing and dancing, leading the other children in the song but there was just something about her that spoke to India. She talked with her and India's mother, who at one point asked Celine what she wanted. She said she wanted a bag to carry her books in. Arie's mother asked her what else she wanted and she said that she wanted to leave with them. I couldn't help but cry at this point. This poor girl was living in hell, and I mean Hell. I would have done anything to help her whether it be smuggle her out of the country, whatever, just something. Arie went back a couple of days later with a bookbag full of clothes and shoes because most of the people there didn't have shoes and they were walking around in sewage. Celine was so happy. I mean you would have thought she received a house, thats how happy she was. There were so many children there that have no one. I wanted to go right over there and bring them all here.
India went to several slum settlements throughout Kenya. She went to this one where she was helping feed some of the sick and she met this woman named Imaculate who was 29 years old with at least 3 kids. She could barely move. She had sores all over her face and in her mouth. They were so painful she could barely eat. Anyway she could speak a little English and India asked her how she got infected. She said that her husband like to sleep around, more or less. Her children didn't know and they didn't say what happened to the husband. I can only imagine that he probably passed away already. She had made memory books for each of her kids so that they knew their family history. They knew who their parents were and when their birthdays were. That was another heartbreaking moment. Then you read shortly after that interview ended that 3 weeks after the interview, she died, orphaning her children.
After watching this I felt so useless. I wanted to do more than donate money. Money is important as far as testing, drugs, food, etc. But these people need humanity. They needed someone to talk to, someone to lean on. I wanted to be there for them and I know I can't be. I wanted to take each and everyone of those kids and bring them here with me. Thats not the answer I know but thats how I felt and still feel while I'm writing this. It really puts things in perspective. We live in a country where yeah the government isn't the best and yeah we still have sick people and homeless people. But its nothing like it is over there. I wish more people were sensitive to this issue.
posted by Kyleen at 8:36 AM
2 Comments:
This is one of the most thought provoking and heartfelt posts I have read on a blog in a really long time.
Maybe ever.
Thank you for posting that, Kyleen.
Thanks for commenting. Like I said, everyone should watch it if they have a chance. I know its depressing but its still good to be informed. :)
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