Comic Relief 2015: Peter Capaldi's Africa diary
He's never had a challenge like this one in Doctor Who – but Peter Capaldi discovers hope amid the slums of Malawi
The rural village of Belesoni, an hour from Blantyre, is home to an astonishing support group, called Napham [National Association for People Living with HIV and Aids in Malawi]. The project is helped by Comic Relief cash and works hard to tackle the isolation many feel when they are diagnosed.
The charismatic Stanley, who runs the 145-strong forum, tells me that just two days before I arrived, an HIV-positive man, who struggled to come to terms with his status and what it’d mean for his family, committed suicide by poisoning himself with undiluted alcohol.
It isn’t just those living with HIV/Aids who suffer because of the stigma, though; it’s also those left behind. That’s why the support group has started a pre-school nursery for little ones, which brings together children who are either infected themselves or have lost parents. These tiny, bright kids are taught together and shown from a tender age that this medical condition is not of their doing. They learn it is just something that’s happened to them in their short lives and is not to be feared. They’re taught those with it should not be shunned.
This is as tangible and practical an impact as you can imagine, a building, a nursery, a project, performing a function that’s extinguishing stigma before it takes hold.
As well as the centre, they also come to the aid of orphaned children who struggle to cope after losing their parents to HIV/Aids. Nine-year-old Manwel, 12-year-old Lozi and Furases, 13 and now head of the family, are a tragic case in point. After losing their father many years ago, they lived happily with their mother before she finally succumbed to an Aids-related disease last year, leaving these three children alone in the world.
As I spoke with them, Lozi produced a clutch of loose paper and proudly took me through her school work. I asked who puts who to bed at night, who makes the breakfast – “We have no beds, we have no food to eat before school,” they answered.
A sadder, more desperate situation is hard to imagine, yet all they wanted to do was play, laugh, draw in the dust – act like the carefree children they are, or at least used to be. Adulthood has been foisted upon these children in the harshest, cruellest way imaginable.
But they have the Napham group. A lifeline in a very literal sense that will help them navigate their many issues. They’ll provide help with food, giving them seeds and livestock and even vocational training, should Furases be forced to drop out of school to lead the young family, as seems likely.
Theirs won’t be an easy life, their teenage years will be a battle for survival, but with the support of this project – support funded in part because you choose to buy a Red Nose, bake a cake, donate via the Radio Times envelope in this week's magazine (the one with today's listings) or at rednoseday.com/radiotimes, or call the phoneline to donate – they are being given at least the chance of a future.
Like everything I’d seen, this was a challenging and complex situation that Comic Relief had chosen to help tackle – no quick wins or fancy gimmicks here. But Richard Curtis had been right. People’s generosity really does translate into truly extraordinary change – and I’m very glad indeed I was there to witness it.
Comic Relief begins on BBC1 tonight (Friday 13th March) at 7.00pm
