In a traditional African village of thatched huts, cattle and cornfields, a woman watches as her grandchildren pound kernels of corn under a brilliant blue sky. Not far from this idyllic scene her son lays buried, one of countless victims of HIV/AIDS, an invisible enemy that has claimed the lives of mothers and fathers and left 1.8 million orphans in sub-Saharan Africa.
The NET Television production “Hearts of Zambia” is a documentary journal about the power of hope and compassion in the face of tragedy. It premieres at 7:30 p.m., Feb. 10 on NET1/HD.
Work on "Hearts of Zambia" began in July 2009 when three NET Television filmmakers traveled 9,000 miles to tell the story of the HIV/AIDS crisis in Zambia. The trip was at the invitation of UNL's Charles Wood, director of the Nebraska Center for Virology and professor of biological sciences and biochemistry.
Wood operates a Zambia clinic at the cutting edge of HIV/AIDS research.
In Zambia’s capital city of Lusaka, one of every five people is HIV-positive and the poor come to Wood’s clinic for free treatment. Together, Wood and his Zambian partner Dr. Chipepo Kankasa are educating mothers about HIV transmission so their children can be born virus-free.
Kankasa knows she could make a lot more money by leaving her native Zambia. “But I feel somebody has to remain behind and fight this war,” she said.
“Hearts of Zambia” reveals the resilience of the human spirit. A young man who is HIV positive and blind sings a song of gratitude and tells of his dream to help the orphans of Zambia when he becomes rich. At a hospice, a woman paints her nails and waits for her grandmother to visit. Beneath the blanket on her lap, her legs are swollen with an AIDS related virus, but she has hope that she will one day walk.
The program also takes viewers to The Red Elephant, where a small group of dedicated Zambians rescue and educate orphans — assigning guardians to each of them until they are able to live on their own. And, at the SOS Children’s Village in Lusaka, a young woman who grew up an orphan explains that she has a scholarship to medical school in Michigan where she dreams of finding a cure for AIDS.
“Thinking back on the people we met, we realized that what defines Zambia is not HIV and AIDS. What defines Zambia is hope,” said Christine Lesiak, producer of “Hearts of Zambia."
"Hearts of Zambia" repeats at 8:30 a.m., Feb. 12 on NET2; 12:30 and 10 p.m., Feb. 12 on NET1/HD; 8:30 p.m., Feb. 13 on NET1/HD; and 10:30 p.m., Feb. 14 on NET1/HD.
Funding for "Hearts of Zambia" was provided, in part, by the Sherwood Foundation.
For more information, go to http://netnebraska.org/television.
— Kim Rogers, NET Television