by Mary Ferreira Port-au-Prince, Haiti – The number of children living on the streets of Port-au-Prince alone doubled to 4,000 since the 2010 earthquake says UNICEF. They're everywhere – darting in between cars – trying to survive in a country mired in poverty. They clean cars to survive. Anyone driving in the Delmas area can [...]
PRODUCER: GILL FICKLING At the deserted end of a beach east of Cape Town, the waves crashing in front against a backdrop of the city's most famous landmark, Table Mountain, Oyama Mbopa danced. In her head, she sang the Brenda Fassie song "Memeza", about a woman's cry for help when she is attacked. Oyama, herself [...]
by Francis Mead In the midst of violent conflict, one of the hardest things is to be a parent. At the best of times, in the most peaceful places, teenagers and young people can get into trouble. But in the middle of the Arab-Israeli conflict, getting into trouble can mean being killed, maimed or jailed. [...]
It was a late call – could I go to Minnesota to film the deaf, Finnish rapper for the last two days of his US tour? I wasn't quite as fazed by this request as you might guess: I'd seen the poster for Signmark when he'd passed by the UN in New York – but [...]
by Gill Fickling The explosion was deafening … the ground shook … and thick black dust fell from the ceiling. Nobody dived under the table, or ran for cover. In fact, nobody flinched as this was all part of daily life. No, we weren't filming in a war-zone but in South Africa, at the home [...]
by Francis Mead One of the things about Anatoliy is you can e-mail him and he can e-mail you back. Which sounds completely trivial – except that Anatoliy Popko is blind. So how does he do it? It's all down to voice recognition software – something called JAWS (Job Access with Speech). He showed me when [...]
by Mary Ferreira Lahore, Pakistan – Thousands of spectators on both sides of the border – Pakistan and India – cheer as soldiers representing both nations participate in a ceremony which ends in a perfectly coordinated lowering of the two nations’ flags. Called the beating retreat border ceremony, one infantryman or Jawan stands at attention [...]
By Producer Gill Fickling 2011 was not a good year to be an elephant. Although trade in ivory has been banned since 1989, more ivory was seized during that year than any other on record, representing at least 2500 dead elephants. African elephants are being killed in ever larger numbers to satisfy a growing [...]
By GILL FICKLING When I asked fifteen year old Lupita what she would like most if she had all the money in the world, she told me “a toothbrush”. Lupita is one of the thousands of kids who live in the dangerous environment of the Mexico City streets. Official estimates cite just over 3000 young [...]
By Francis Mead WATCH THIS A brave woman uses a small camera to capture what is happening to her: she discovers she isn’t safe in her own home. (excerpt) After a year of rumours Nuriya Khalikova was forced from her home – to make way for a new park in the centre of Azerbaijan’s capital, [...]
