- "Stigma" is about two African women who contracted HIV through their work as traditional birth attendants1 in a small village. One, the mother, could not stand the massive stigmatization from the society, friends, even family, and she dies. The other, the daughter, refuses to die; she fights against that stigmatization that kills the people living with HIV/Aids in Africa. A drama about ignorance and the consequences of carelessness, but also about the power to overcome desperate situations in life, to burst your bonds and finally be what you want to be.
- A drama about ignorance and the consequences of carelessness. But also about the power to overcome desperate situations in life, to burst ones bonds and finally to be what you want to be.
STIGMA tells the story of Vanessa (Jackie Appiah), a girl growing up in a small community in Nigerias Niger Delta. Vanessas childhood come to an abrupt end when her mother Ibiso (Hilda Dokubo), the local midwife, becomes ill. First without knowing the reason, and Vanessa needs to work in her mothers profession to aliment the family . She must learn about the enormity of ignorant thinking when a doctor and good friend diagnoses AIDS to her mother and the community including family members and her beloved longtime boyfriend ostracize her mother and her. In the moment they need help and support, they get only indifference and refusal.
Ibiso dies stigmatized in desperation and loneliness. Vanessas heritage are a continious stigmatization and financial problems because the instilled fear let most of her patients stay off. Although shes working with more medical precautions than her mother, Vanessa become infected with the virus also. The young woman is going to cave in, remembering the way which took her mother.
When Vanessa decides to end hers tragic life by herself it takes a turn for the better, for the only reason that theres someone who has the courage and trust to believe in her, someone who are not following antiquated ways of thinking.
With the help of that person Vanessa is not more a prisoner of circumstance and social rape. She left the village, turnes her illness into the possibility to begin a new life and buries the stigma of being HIV positive starting a career as motivational speaker and famous advocat of people living with AIDS. Her successful fight not only initiate her personal reformation, also companions of Vanessas past develope and want to come back to her life. But forgiveness is not easy to grant and sometimes it could be too late.
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