While every attempt has been made to ensure this transcript or summary is accurate, Special Assignment or its agents cannot be held liable for any claims arising out of inaccuracies caused by human error or electronic fault. This transcript was typed from a transcription recording unit and not from an original script, so due to the possibility of mishearing and the difficulty, in some cases, of identifying individual speakers, errors cannot be ruled out.

 

 

FENLEY: -This week two stories focusing on youngsters. We look at a pilot program to track our missing children. And we travel to Botswana, to see what they are doing to save their children from the ravages of HIV-AIDS. Today marks the launch of a global campaign by UNICEF to highlight the plight of youngsters who have been affected by the pandemic.

 

 MISSING KIDS

 

UPS: - VOICER - Have you seen this face before?  If you have you may be able to help this girl find her identical twin sister who went missing seventeen years ago.

 

PRE-TITLE: MISSING KIDS

 

UPS: - JUNICE ADAMS; MOTHER - On the sixth of March 1989, the nanny disappeared with my baby. One of the twins with Veronique and ever since then we were not able to trace her.

 

UPS: - VOICER - Their nanny, Beauty Makwanazi from Pietermaritzburg left their home in Eldorado Park Johannesburg with eleven month old Veronique and disappeared without a trace. 

 

UPS: - JUNICE ADAMS; MOTHER - They told us they can’t open a docket we have to wait forty eight hours. This is something you can’t just forget about. Some people are lucky they put the body into a coffin and bury it, but we can’t get closure. And you wonder is Veronique is also so lucky to have what Venorisha got. Is she well looked after is she well cared for. All those thing s still go through my mind

 

UPS: - VOICER - In White City, Soweto, another grieving parent. Rachel Raboroko’s son Siphiwe went missing fourteen years ago.

 

UPS: - RACHEL RABOROKO; MOTHER - It was in September 1991, my son went to school. He didn’t come back from school. I went to the government mortuary and all the mortuaries I was looking for him but he was nowhere to be seen. From the year 1991 until 1994 I was crying every day I could not eat my heart was sore. Every year on the twelve of April when it’s his birthday my heart is sore when other parents have birthdays for their children my heart becomes very sore, I don’t know where my child is.

 

UPS: - VOICER - The community of Eldorado Park Johannesburg are still traumatised after the brutal killing of six year old Ghairoenisha Ganchi.

 

UPS: - ABUBAKR GANCHI; FATHER - She plays here in front of her grannies house with a few friends next door here. She went missing just after four and we started searching and they found the body the following morning Friday just before six here on top by the koppies.

 

 

UPS: - VOICER - The family believe quicker police reaction may have saved her life.

 

UPS: - ABUBAKR GANCHI; FATHER - I am not happy with the service they are giving us because they turned me and the grandmother away and they said we must wait for twenty four hours and they never reacted at the same time.

 

 UPS: - SUPT FANIE VAN DEVENTER; SAPS MISSING CHILDREN BUREAU - The critical period is you first seventy two hours if a child was abducted for sexual fulfilment three hours is enough for the perpetrator to do whatever he or she wants to do and then they will get rid of the child if it was for pornographic reasons then forty eight hours is your next deadline that’s why I say the seventy two hours is your absolute deadline and the critical period to do something.

 

 UPS: - VOICER - This week the centre for exploited and missing children is taking new steps to track missing kids.

 

UPS: - SUPT. FANIE VAN DEVENTER; DIRECTOR  SA CENTRE FOR MISSING AND EXPLOITED CHILDREN - The SA Centre for missing and exploited children within a few days will launch a pilot in Cape Town where there is a proactive database parents can go and proactively put their children’s photo and information on a database, this database is a secure database. Within the first three hours you can distribute that photograph and the information because it is already available.

 

UPS: - VOICER - Meanwhile the Eldorado Park Community fear for the safety of their children.

 

 UPS: - MAGDALENE GANCHI; MOTHER – Our children are not safe they can’t even play outside because we are scared. If they play outside they can disappear.  You can expect anything

 

UPS: - ABUBAKR GANCHI; FATHER - The perpetrator is still on the loose there is no lead nothing. They got fingerprints and everything they are working on the case twenty four seven. But the perpetrator is still out on the loose. So we can’t trust the children outside. I think it is not fair for children to live like this is not fair.

 

UPS: - BONTLE SETSHOGOE; COMMUNITY LEADER SOWETO - We need to be very vigilant as a community. We cannot expect the police to be everywhere. Any child is your child that is why we emphasize Ubuntu . We say a child is your child whether it is your biological child or not is your child.

 

UPS: - VOICER - The family of Veronique and Siphiwe have not given up hope of finding them.

 

UPS: - RACHEL RABOROKO - I do have a hope that one day I will find him because I believe that Jesus Christ my Saviour has died for me and he is not going to leave me like this.

 

UPS: - JUNICE ADAMS - Veronisha never had a birthday party because you don’t feel like celebrating because there is something missing, somebody missing there is a part of her Veronsha is missing. I would love to see the two of them on their twenty first birthday together.

 

UPS: - VERONISHA ADAMS - I feel that she is out there somewhere I know that she is out there and I feel that there is something missing in my life.

 

AD BREAK 1

 

FENLEY: - Today UNICEF launches a global campaign to highlight the plight of youngsters affected by HIV-AIDS. We visit Botswana, to see what they are doing to save their children from the ravages of the pandemic.

 

PRE-TITLE: SAVING A GENERATION

 

UPS: - VOICER - A baby clothes. A mark of life. Promising and precious. But these lives are under threat. These babies struggle for a little life. Nothing, like this, has ever happened before.

 

DR HARUNA DJIBRIL – The future generation are children if you do not look after them now what are you going to have at the end of it all.

 

UPS: - VOICER - For now too many are lost. Missing their childhood. And they’re missing their mums and dads or they missed out altogether. Here a baby’s life interrupted. Just one year of living and now gone. It does not have to be like this. Botswana is seen as a shinning example of hope and success on the African continent. It’s huge diamond wealth and political stability has given it a top investment status. Form a distance its middle income, busting, bright, together. Even in the struggle against AIDS it’s done so much right. Yet some things have gone horribly wrong in Botswana’s battle. Health care is free for children here and there is free access to treatment like this PMTCT clinic where prevention of mother to child transmission aims to ensure a baby is born free of the disease even if its mother is not. But it’s just not enough. Thousands and thousands of children are dying from AIDS here.

 

UPS: - DR HARUNA DJIBRIL; HEAD OF PEDIATRICS, PRINCESS MARINA HOSPITAL – If you look at Africa Botswana stands out completely. Because, really, the basic amenities, the basic social services are provided.  We actually not seen  the peak of the epidemic in HIV. We seen a lot of sick children coming now to die from pneumonia, diarrhea and that is a result of the advent of HIV in Botswana.

 

UPS: - VOICER – Dr Djibril has seen the missing face of AIDS once thought to be an adult disease a child face too now.

 

UPS: - DR HARUNA DJIBRIL – do you know what the problem is?

 

UPS: - Mother – Pneumonia

 

DR HARUNA DJIBRIL – Pneumonia very good. I can see she is oxygen I just want to look at her eyes. Just take this out briefly and look at the mouth. Okay I can see that there is a lot of difficulty in breathing.

 

UPS: - VOICER - A baby battling effort to breath always a cruel sign of HIV. Her mother is positive and will need to be treated with Anti-retroviral ARVs. Once children had a better chance of a better life in Botswana than virtually any where else in Africa. Now AIDS is killing Botswana’s babies. Over the past decade child mortality has soared up by more than twenty percent.

 

UPS: - DR SHEILA TLOU; MINISTER OF HEALTH BOTSWANA - For a small nation like ours the death of any one person actually really hits. Especially because we happen to know each other so you can imagine now with child mortality increasing it really. I mean if it was left to continue the way it was we will soon be approaching zero population growth. Fortunately with the advent of ARVs and especially the programme to prevent mother to child transmission we are seeing positive changes.

 

UPS: - VOICER – Even with these positive changes here in the Capital of Gaborone warning of disease are everywhere. Botswana has the second highest HIV prevalence in pregnant women but every single age group has been hit making it a generalised HIV apademic. One of the main reasons is highly mobile population buses and goods roads have linked it with other countries with high rates of infection. The unreached are now being reached making the country making the country progress something of a curse. Even the furthest corners are being hit. There are twice as many cattle as people here. It is small population of less than two million are scattered. Across the vast desert of the Kalahari the san Bushmen once had to reach are more vulnerable than ever. Humanitarian organizations like UNICEF and partners have set up a pre-school for these children. Here they go through the first fun steps of learning.  They fed and clothed, warm clothes for cold desert nights. For Kumunye and Lesedi it makes a big difference in their lives. Their mother is sick and their father is struggling. In another time he was a hunter the san bushmen once lived off the land isolated and independent. That HIV knows no boundaries. So even in the furthest corner of the land AIDS has visited now he himself hunted and alone.

 

UPS: - VOICER – Your wife isn’t well. Tell me what’s happened.

 

UPS: - KEATSHABA MOTSHABISI – My wife got sick when she was giving birth to her second child that is when she got sick.

 

UPS: - VOICER – What is wrong?

 

UPS: - KEATSHABA MOTSHABISI – She was caught with TB

 

UPS: - VOICER – Has she had blood tests?

 

UPS: - KEATSHABA MOTSHABISI – Yes

 

UPS: - VOICER – And what do the blood test say?

 

UPS: - KEATSHABA MOTSHABISI – The test say she is negative. Positive, I mean.

 

UPS: - VOICER – She is positive.

 

UPS: - KEATSHABA MOTSHABISI – Yes, I’m worried about her because for now there’s nowhere I can go. Because I seem to be the first person that can give aid to her.

 

UPS: - VOICER – He has not been tested, twenty six year old Pelego has. She was weak and put on ARVs remarkable in their remote desert.

 

UPS: -PELEGO SEKGOLE – I started getting sick during 2002. I was diagnosed with TB. Then I got better but after a while I became sick again. When I went for the blood test, I tested positive. I know that it was sexually transmitted.

 

UPS: - VOICER - But you’ve got two lovely little children, what is their future like now, do you think?

 

UPS: - KEATSHABA MOTSHABISI – Their future is not what I thought it would be.

 

UPS: - VOICER – And you said you are weak?

 

UPS: - KEATSHABA MOTSHABISI – Yes, I’m weak. I’m just weak because it seems that I’m the only person who’s in the darkness in the world.

 

AD BREAK 2

 

UPS: - VOICER - More  than anywhere else on earth, in Sub-Saharan Africa AIDS has left twelve and a half million children without parents, without a childhood. Education is called the social vaccine to AIDS, ammunition for a life away from streets. In Botswana fifteen percent f all children have been orphan to AIDS. Humanitarian groups and care givers have had to bridge that gap. Children are growing too fast or not growing up at all. When they do get help from the community the nation thrives too. But there just not enough being reached. In order to stop the spiral of the disease and growing orphan hood pregnant are tested for the virus at all PMTCT Clinics to prevent mother to child transmission of HIV. There is thorough counselling.

 

UPS: - DOCTOR - We have two types of examination. This one which we have here is the one we call the rapid test. This kit is called “Unigold” this kit we call “Determine”. We use them together to get an accurate reading of your blood. Do you understand? Do you want to continue? Are you sure you want to continue? Please give me your finger.

 

UPS: - VOICER - If she is tested positive she will be put on treatment on ARVs it’s free of charge but it is not free of anxiety and fear and waiting.

 

UPS: - DOCTOR - The sample is reacting when the blood is ready I will call you.

 

UPS: - VOICER -Unusually for Southern Africa PMTCT has become well known as a consumer brand in Botswana across the city the sign of the times are everywhere.  It takes twenty minutes for a rapid result but it feels like hours for this woman.

 

UPS: - DOCTOR - Would you be prepared for any result when the blood comes?

 

UPS: PATIENT – Yes.

 

UPS: - DOCTOR - Are you ready for me to give the results of your test?

 

UPS: PATIENT – Yes.

 

UPS: - DOCTOR - This is your blood can you explain your results?

 

UPS: PATIENT – They say I’m negative.

 

UPS: - DOCTOR - Yes you are negative.

 

UPS: - VOICER - This time she is relieved the result is negative. Thirty eight percent of all pregnant women in Botswana are not that lucky. Ideally they need to go on ARV and stay on the treatment all their lives this tool free. Already Botswana is close in reaching its target of fifty thousand people on ARVs by the end of 2005. It hasn’t come cheap though.

 

UPS: - DR SHEILA TLOU; MINISTER OF HEALTH BOTSWANA – We are way ahead of other countries and way ahead of the target and we’re very proud of that because I think its one country in the world that has devoted twenty five percent of the budget towards the health of its people and only five percent towards the army. It is a huge slice of our budget. And it we can continue that way I think we’ll end up being able to save quite a lot of our population.

 

UPS: - VOICER – However children are still missing out. They’re missing medicine one out of every ten children infected with HIV, is actually on treatment, even with huge support from the private sector and drug companies. The Baylor Clinic in Gaborone, looks like a five star lodge but without the price tag. Treatment is free here for paediatric AIDS patients.

 

UPS: - DR NABWANI; DIRECTOR BAYLOR CHILDREN’S CLINIC- The warning here is that things can only get worse. Infant mortality has gone up. But in many other countries where it was already struggling with traditional killers, this is going to be an added burden. Children are receiving much less attention than adults. Children always come last.

 

UPS: - VOICER – Drug in liquid form for children are difficult to come by, difficult to swallow and cost more than twice as much than adults’ drugs.

 

UPS: - DR NABWANI; DIRECTOR BAYLOR CHILDREN’S CLINIC- It costs three or four times more to treat a small child than to treat an adult. And diagnosis of HIV in children is much more difficult than in adults. They’re innocent by-standers and they require our greatest effort in making sure that they live the life that children are meant to live. Like these children playing, going to school and just being children.

 

UPS: - VOICER – These children can be just that, children simply because they are on therapy. They are indeed the lucky ones only one in ten positive children are currently on treatment.

 

UPS: - GORDON JONATHAN LEWIS; UNICEF BOTSWANA REPRESENTATIVE- As long as you have HIV positive babies being born to HIV positive women who have not enrolled into PMTCT programme, you will have this problem. There is a very low coverage rate of HIV positive children on the national anti-retroviral programme.

 

UPS: - DR HARUNA DJIBRIL; HEAD OF PEDIATRICS, PRINCESS MARINA HOSPITAL – A few years ago people were even arguing against treating children. They’re not going to survive, why do you want to bother? But from what you see, they are surviving. So despite the constrained resources, I think that wherever there’s HIV child, the treatment of children should be a priority because the future generation are children if you don’t look after them now what are you going to have at the end of it all.

 

UPS: - VOICER – Cementaries are filling up here as life expectancy has plummeted from sixty five years to just thirty nine years in the past decade. Botswana is racing against time to save its children form an early grave. This then is a wake up call to protect the future generation before they miss out on a future all together