The Positive Ladies Soccer Club

Joanna (she recently came back from Zimbabwe where she was a Field Communications Officer for MSF), has directed a film.

It's called "The Positive Ladies Soccer Club" (link goes to the movie's site).

Joanna's film offers a message of hope.

It's about IHV positive women who, despite barely knowing how to play football, not only decided to form a team but set themselves the goal to win the local tournament's championship. They go on to the final ...

David Williams of Sky News Online has written an article about it (be sure to watch the video of her interview).

Excerpt:
"... The action plays out across a rich palette of colours and to a soundtrack of African communal singing performed by the women themselves.

'When I met them, the first thing they did was sing to me," Joanna recalled. "They sang a song about being strong and having hope.'

Filmed on a shoestring budget, the project was blessed by generosity: from the unpaid players whose heart-rendering interviews carry the film's emotional message, to the end of production when film giant Technicolor waived a fee for its services.

Joanna said the filming - which was welcomed by the country's authorities due to MSF's apolitical role - has had a dramatic effect on attitudes among the community.

"People would previously shout at our women. If they were on a bus they wouldn't sit next to them," she said.

"Now, after they saw them playing in this football team and winning, people would come up to the women as if they were movie stars..."

Trailer:


Screened on the 15th of November at the Bath Film Festival , it will be shown on World AIDS Day, 1st December 2009 in Athens, at the Hellenic American Union (22 Massalias st., Athens).

(Update: it was also featured on CNN)

More Zimbabwe News from Joanna: Jacques.

Dear family and friends,

Jacques is now VERY happily living in Zimbabwe!

He loves this country, everywhere he goes there is grass and trees and flowers. He is passionately sniffing all the new smells of this African country, he rolls around on all the lawns and has already tried sadza – the local food stipend made of mealie-flour.

It was quite an effort to bring him over and Jacques and I would both like to thank the efforts of my friend Tanya, Mary and wonderful Mr. Andreas (Jacques doc). I would also like to wholeheartedly thank many people who bought from my little Africa Shop, without whose contributions this would not have been possible. A big thank you to Diane and to Lambrini and all her friends. Finally, thank you to the people at CYA, whose financial contribution was also a big helping factor (special thanks to Nadia and Steve for lobbying on my behalf!).

Jacques’ days are filled with walks and gardens. He usually starts the morning with a brisk trot as I leisurely cycle down to the WWF offices where I am volunteering. Then he gets to loll around their huge gardens. We then usually do another sniff-filled walk over to the MSF offices and then he gets to loll around their gardens for a while. Then it is back home, dinner time and an evening walk around the enormous compound garden grounds. All the roads we take in the city hardly have any traffic and they all have grass and trees (see photos).

Everywhere he goes Jacques get compliments. He has made quite an impression on the local populace – “that’s a very nice dog you have!” Many people are also very afraid of him which unfortunately comes from when white colonialist use to train their dogs to attack black people. But despite their fear, once they get to know him they all remark what a friendly dog he is.

Food is an issue, since we humans have not had meat in the supermarkets for the past three weeks. Thankfully, I have found a local vet clinic where they have a supply of good quality dog food.

So, big WOOF WOOF from Jacques and hug from me!!

Joanna and Jacques

Joanna's Zimbabwe Letter

Joanna is a journalist friend (the one who took my blog picture). She now lives in Zimbabwe with her friend who is in MSF.

From time to time she sends a letter describing her experiences there. They tend to be fantastic. So I asked her if I could publish her latest one. Here it is:

"Dear family and friends,

I have already been here (in Harare, Zimbabwe) for two weeks and am still find it hard to adjust.

EVERYTHING is difficult in this country, and believe me when I say that I’m not exaggerating. First of all – it is COLD. We are in winter time here, which wouldn’t be bad if it wasn’t for the fact that NO houses, offices, building in general have heating. At my boyfriend’s offices people type on their computers with gloves on, while I never take off my coat, unless I’m getting into bed under five covers.

Then there is the whole economical situation. When I first visited here three months ago, for 1 U.S. Dollar you could get 20,000 Zim dollars. Now you can get 125,000 Zim dollars for 1 U.S. Dollar. All the currency now in circulation though has an expiration date – imagine looking at your euro or dollar note and seeing on it: Expires on July 31, 2007 (!!!!!) (see photo). But that is exactly what Zim dollars have on them, so you can imagine the spending frenzy everyone is going to get into in these next ten days or so.

Having said that, let us look at what there is to buy with those expiring million dollar packets we are carrying around – and the answer is: NOT MUCH. A couple of weeks ago the government decided to make shops and supermarkets cut down their prices to a June level. Many did not comply; they are all now in jail. Managers of supermarkets, directors of shop, floor managers... all in jail. At the stores that did cut their prices – madness! Miles long lines of people waiting to get inside to buy all those things that now according to real value rates cost pennies. For example the government made MACRO supermarket sell its television set for 1 million Zim dollars. Sounds like a lot, but according to the black market exchange rate that is only 8 $, about 6.5 euros. You can imagine the pandemonium that broke out as people rushed to get the sets, fighting with each other, pulling, tearing, breaking things... It was even reported today that there was a pregnant woman waiting in a cue to buy fixed price items and she had her baby there at the shop!

But generally, there isn’t anything in the stores to buy because simply it is more expensive for producers to sell their products than it is to make them. So for the past two weeks there is no meat to be had anywhere in the country. Eggs are scarce, as is bread and milk. We’re all eating a lot of canned stuff, Heinz soups are especially everywhere. I’m getting to have a very close relationship with the Zim can-opener, which sometimes works, or sometimes manages to plow into my hand!!

More worrying, they also say that soon there won’t be any fuel which will of course bring the country to a stand-still. But there is now a rumor that Libya will be giving Zim fuel, one revolutionary supporting another...

Telecommunications are a complete disaster. It is almost impossible to call someone, so everyone texts people, which sometimes get there, sometimes don’t. The internet sometimes works, sometimes doesn’t.

We have power black-outs. They cut off the electricity in blocks around the city in order to economize. You don’t know when it will be your turn, and how long they will keep it off for. Then they also cut the water. We have to keep big bins filled with water just in case. Yesterday we were at the check-out counter in this huge supermarket and all the lights went out – we were all in complete darkness!! It was VERY SCARRY!!! The guards ran and shut all the doors and then everyone had to demonstrate their receipt and what they had in their bags in order to leave.

On a personal level, it is extremely risky for me to even attempt to write something as a journalist. But even looking for a job is tricky. I can’t include in my CV anything that hints that I was a journalists (which obviously leaves for a very poor resume) and I can’t really say I’m looking for a job because I’m only here on a tourist visa which they can revoke whenever they want.

Then every office I go to is behind a guarded enclosure and sometimes it is difficult even getting beyond the guards: “What do you want?” reply: “To see the human resource department” “Do you have an appointment” or “who do you want to see?” to which of course I don’t have an answer. Some look at me strange, some scornfully, some are very nice. To many places I’m just offering myself as a volunteer to see what they will offer, and hope that something job-wise will come up afterwards. But sometimes I’ve had people look at me even stranger when I say I want to be a volunteer.

I’m sending a picture of me in front of the new Medecins Sans Frontiers offices. (I am wearing my favorite sweater and necklace some VERY special kids gave me as a present!) The new offices are this incredible mansion (even with a pool in the back, which MSF rules doesn’t allow to be used) which goes for a pittance. The garden in front had even more trees, some huge mango trees included, but because some of the Zim workers had to put through a cable and the trees were in the way... they just cut them down! VERY SAD!

In the meantime, I am trying to fly Jacques, my dog, over here, which has required a lot of money and paperwork and the INCREDIBLY kind efforts of some friends of mine who are helping out. I am still waiting to see what will happen with that and will keep you all updated.

Huge hug to everyone,

Joanna"