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Cinema - Manzini
Youth Centre
In 2003, when the last survey was carried
out, 38.8% of the adult population in Swaziland was infected
with HIV or AIDS. This figure made the small land-locked Southern
African country overtake Botswana to head the most unenviable
league table of them all. The average life expectancy in the
country has fallen to under 33. The vast majority of victims
are infected via heterosexual sex; in a country where polygamy
is legal, nobody knows whether the infection level is likely
to plateau soon. The pandemic has spread to almost equal levels
between rural and urban areas. In 1999 King Mswati III declared
the virus a ‘national disaster’. In a population
of just over a million, there are 65,000 AIDS orphans.
The film at the All Saints tonight is not the sort normally
shown there on a Friday night. This is no cathartic hour-and-a-half
movie to help you de-stress after a working week. It is a
film made about the Manzini Youth Centre, run by the Salesian
order of Catholic priests and brothers to provide help for
marginalised youth in the areas of Skom and Moneni on the
outskirts of Manzini, the country’s most populated district.
The order runs six residential homes to care for approximately
120 street kids and AIDS orphans. The film tells a day in
the life of these kids. It will be very different from your
average day. Drinks will be sold, and there will be a raffle.
All proceeds go to charity. AG
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