The Film
Greener Pastures is the story of poverty and AIDS in sub Saharan Africa through the experiences of Clamencia, Veta, and Linley, nurses working in Malawi's collapsing public hospital system. Through their own eyes, these nurses give us a glimpse into the human realities of the African AIDS pandemic and of the brutal consequences of extreme poverty. The nurses all share a common trait: all chose to become nurses because of a rooted need to help others.
Malawi: A Glimpse
The country of Malawi itself is one of the film's main characters. Nestled in the southern end of Africa's Great Rift Valley, Malawi, formerly the British Protectorate of Nyasaland, was among the continent's earliest countries to gain independence from colonial rule in the 1960s.
Today, the country of 12 million people continues to struggle with development challenges. One of the poorest countries in Africa, Malawi exemplifies the bottom of the global economic ladder. Lacking mineral resources, Malawi exports its people. Malawi has long been a supplier of industrial and agricultural labor to its neighbors, including Apartheid-era South Africa's mining industry. In recent years, the country has faced the full impact of Africa's AIDS pandemic, opening the door to numerous opportunistic diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis, and slashing the average life expectancy to just over 37 years of age.
In the face of this rising crisis, Malawi's ability to strike back at the pandemic has been crippled by the countryís worsening poverty. The Malawi Health Ministry's budget is insufficient to provide needed medicines and facilities to the ailing population. What's more, the government cannot muster the resources to pay health workers competitive wages, prompting many government trained doctors and nurses to seek life elsewhere
