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South African Broadcasting Corporation Copyright ©
2000 - 2005 SABC |
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this
Tuesday July 22, 2003, SABC 3 at 9h30 pm -
"Tiny
Rays of Hope"
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This Tuesday Special
Assignment tracks a group of boys on the East Rand
who have drifted towards a life of crime but who have,
for the moment, managed to come back from the brink.
They all come from families that are poor, dysfunctional
and ravaged by disease.
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Living in a
violence-scarred community with a strong gang culture
and going to bed hungry, many have had a run-in with the
law. Unlike most young men in these circumstances,
however, these boys have been trying to resist the bogus
solutions offered by criminality. They have, instead,
looked for guidance from an innovative therapeutic
programme offered by the Ekupholeni Mental Health Centre
in Thokoza.
Special Assignment
managed to gain unique access to their sessions with
their counsellors. We listen as the boys argue about why
their parents offer them no support: is it that their
parents have nothing, or that they simply don't care? We
listen as they remember the violence they witnessed as
young children and discuss the impact it made on them.
We see them debate whether there are options other than
criminality open to them, and watch as they respond to a
betrayal of the group when a cellphone belonging to a
caregiver is stolen.
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We watch as Tebogo,
abandoned by his mother and receiving no love or support
from his alcoholic father, grapples with the limited
options that life has thrown him. We meet Vusi and
Simon, who have been driven to crime by their poverty,
and are looking for a way out.
The documentary offers
insight into the lives and circumstances a large number
of marginalised boys. We show that, ultimately, these
boys can break out of their learned helplessness and
take responsibility for their lives, but that this is no
easy task. This insightful documentary is directed by
Antony Altbeker, Jackie May, and Fionna Sommers.
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page by Steven
Lang
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