Uganda Shoot- Soft Power Health-2009

For the past few weeks I have been filming in Uganda for Jessie Stone who is the founder of Soft Power Health, a non profit organization that does grass roots malaria education and prevention, operates a rural medical clinic and does family planning. This is my third time back to film in Uganda, and it is always inspiring and challenging.

On one of the most emotionally difficult days, Jessie, Jessica(Jessie's interpreter/educator) and I  went with the clinical advisor (social worker) from Jinga(the nearest town)  to evaluate a two year old HIV positive baby who had been brought in to the clinic a week prior with serious burns. Jessie and her Ugandan translator, Jessica, had determined that the mother was unfit to care for the child.

We went to the family’s small mud hut, which was down a narrow path in a rural village. Upon reaching the hut we immediately heard the baby crying. Jessie and the social worker entered the hut. The baby sat on the mud floor, dirty, malnourished and  severely undeveloped for his age. Tears were coming to my eyes as I was filming the sad state of this poor little being. The local equivalent to a social worker began interviewing the very thin father as the mother did the washing up on the ground. The social worker was furiously writing while Jessie, Jessica and I anxiously awaited his decision of the baby’s fate. The mother began washing the thin baby in a plastic basin on the ground and dressed the child in clean clothes.

 At this stage we began to deduce they were going to hand the baby over to us. The mother hands the child to Jessica and the parents follow us back down the narrow track to the car. The mother has no display of emotion about her baby’s departure. The father waves goodbye as we make the journey over bumpy washed out dirt road to the HIV positive children’s home in Jinga. We arrive 30 minutes later. Jessica carries the now quiet baby and we all walk into the children’s home. About twenty children of various ages are sitting on the clean cement floor eating their chipati dinner. The children look clean, well fed, and healthy. Jessie reviews the baby’s history with one of the homes caregivers, as we wait for “Mama Holly” the woman who runs the home. Mama Holly arrives and Jessie explains the situation. Mama Holly welcomes the baby with open arms, and says “this is why we are here”.  We thank her and say goodbye. Jessie and I commented on how fortunate it was that a home like this existed and how lucky it was that maybe now this baby will have a chance at survival.

This story still brings tears to my eyes when I think about it. Not all of the stories here have a “happy” ending, and even tho this one was “happy” all of the things I have seen here make me realize how lucky I am to have been born into the Western world and how trivial my concerns are most of the time.

For more information on Jessie’s work in Uganda please go to www.softpowerhealth.org