The Movie
There is a saying that 'Life is cheap in Africa'. Like it or not, the modern day global order is characterized by a deep disparity between the haves and the have-nots. This disparity affects all aspects of modern life, in all parts of the world. A question that continually rises to the forefront concerns healthcare: in this age of scientific and medical advancement, who has the right to good health? Should access to good medical care really be the exclusive privilege of the worldís rich? These are questions central to this film. Still, there is another quandary: Who is responsible for providing health in a population dominated by have-nots?
The central theme of Greener Pastures is to do with the conflict between the individual and society: the personal and the altruistic. We examine the dissonance between the burdens of these nurses and their families and the overwhelming burdens of a society and a system in crisis. The dilemma facing the nurses represents a larger dilemma: how do we as citizens balance personal needs with the implicit demands of our society?
Greener Pastures seeks to demonstrate the fact that the true story of AIDS in Africa is a story of globalism. A global shortage of doctors and nurses means the worldís poorest, sickest people go without. As nurses and doctors abandon the countryís failing health system to seek better pay in the UK or wealthier African countries, the health workers who remain face daunting workloads and a population increasingly desperate for help. They too must consider their prospects elsewhere.
The truth here is complicated: Linley feels that her duty is to come to the aid of her countrymen in need, despite the personal burdens it places on her and her family. Veta voices a similar desire to stay and help save her fellow Malawians. Clamencia, younger and struggling to raise two small children, wants to do her part for her country but must consider the option of leaving the country and giving her children a better chance and escaping the countryís endemic poverty.
The Characters
Clamencia is a young widow struggling to raise her two young children while working grueling shifts as a nurse on the overcrowded medical wards at Malawiís largest public hospital. Clamencia's life is thrown into turmoil when, shortly after relocating the family to the crime ridden capital city of Lilongwe in pursuit of a job with the government, her husband is brutally murdered in front of her children in their home. Clamencia shares with us her hopes and fears as she puts one foot in front of the other, striving on her own to give her children the best possible hope of escaping poverty. Clamencia's story forms the emotional backbone of the film.
Veta is also a widow raising several children in the slums of Lilongwe. Like Clamencia, she works long hours and struggles to save her meager Nurse's salary so that she can one day buy a house for her children to inherit. She describes herself as 'the Stem' of her family, providing support to a wide range of relatives who have nothing. Veta has a daughter who has gone to work as a nurse in Britain. Every day Veta resists the temptation to join her there, opting to maintain her family in Malawi instead.
Linley is a nurse running a remote health center in the rural district of Mzimba. She speaks of the challenges of working with an overwhelming number of patients in an environment lacking adequate resources, far from her family. Linley is stoic about the burdens she endures on behalf of the many thousands of Malawian villagers who rely on the clinic as their only source of medical attention. She tells us that despite the personal hardships she and her fellow nurses endure in Malawi, she feels a duty to keep working.
The Supporting Characters
Dr. Hetherwick Ntaba is Malawiís former Minister of Health and is our anchor in the story of Malawi's health crisis. Dr. Ntaba speaks of the impact of AIDS on the population and health infrastructure of the small, impoverished nation and describes a critical shortage of doctors and nurses in Malawi's public health clinics. Dr. Ntaba places the plight of Malawi's people in the context of global economics: a worldwide demand for health workers means that poor countries such as Malawi stand little chance of retaining the manpower they need to cope with a widening AIDS disaster.
Rangeley Ngulube is a village leader in Manyamula village, a place where the government clinic has all but collapsed. Along with a handful of motivated volunteers Rangeley runs a local AIDS resource center and orphanage. Through his organization he works to provide home-based care to sick villagers who, without a properly staffed and equipped health clinic nearby, simply have no where else to turn to.
Zakiah Mware is a clinical officer running another remote clinic in the arid escarpment of the Shire River in Zomba District. He speaks of the increased burdens that the HIV/AIDS pandemic has placed on Malawiís remaining health workings. He points out that the AIDS phenomenon, though it is devastating in its effects, is still not something that is well understood in Malawi. He mourns the impacts that the pandemic is having on healthcare workers themselves, as more and more become infected in the course of their attempts to care for the sick.
Nelson Kwozomba is a nursing student at Kamuzu College of Nursing in Lilongwe. Near the end of his studies, he is working on the overcrowded wards at the capital's central hospital. Like all his fellow trainees, Nelson faces the choice of leaving Malawi upon graduation or staying and trying to find work in a mission hospital or in one of Malawiís government hospitals. Though his prospects in Malawi are not good, he expresses a desire to stay at home and help his fellow Malawians.
