Watch the full length films added weekly, review the 5-minute preview cuts, read the stories behind the films.
Last year, Reagan lost four brothers to disease. One of them died from sleeping sickness. Now, in spite of his mother's fears and efforts, Reagan himself has fallen victim to the parasites – Trypanasomes – that cause deadly sleeping sickness.
The parasites enter the body through the bites of the Tsetse fly, common along the banks of the Congo, and in the village of Nioki, where Reagan lives. Nioki has a population of 35,000, and patients here are treated for free, the cost of their treatment covered by foreign aid.
Reagan's condition is not good. His mother Zozo noticed changes in his behaviour. He started sleeping in school. That's when she decided to bring him to the hospital, leaving his brothers and sisters to fend for themselves back home. The bites of the Tsetse flies are clearly visible on Reagan's body and it is likely that the parasites are now in his brain. Left untreated, his condition will be fatal.
He is given an injection of Melarsoprol, an extremely dangerous treatment based on an arsenic compound. It kills the parasites, but can cause fatal inflammation of the brain, killing one patient in 20. It is so corrosive that it is kept in glass bottles, as it melts plastic containers. Half of all patients that have an adverse reaction to the treatment will die. Reagan reacts badly to the injection. It causes him to go into shock.
He's given an anti-inflammatory drug to stabilise him, and it works. He survives the Melarsoprol this time, but will need a full course of injections to kill all the parasites in his body. Without the injections, he will die. With them, there's a high risk of him having another bad and potentially life threatening reaction to the drug. Melarsoprol is the only treatment available to him in Nioki.
Luckily, Reagan survived both the injections and his illness, and made a full recovery. However, due to lack of supplies and the dangers of Melarsoprol, many others like him are not so lucky.
As the plane touched down at Kinshasa airport, the dire warnings from everyone I had spoken to began to ring in my head. If you speak to anyone about the DRC, Google it, or read any press reports, the impression is that the Congo is hell on earth. It came therefore as a surprise to find that Kinshasa airport was much like any other major airport in the developing world - full of hustle and bustle and people trying to make an immediate buck out of the relatively rich foreigners.
Time and time again, we saw the problems that the average Congolese has to put up with. The further into the bush we went, the less of anything there was. Even if you had money, there was very little you could buy. It meant that for a documentary crew, travelling in the country was very difficult. Sometimes we would come across a town that had some resources, such as Nioki, where there was electricity. But just as you felt you could relax, an incident would happen that would show you what poverty and lawlessness there was. While we were in Nioki, thieves removed the copper from generator cables to sell the metal for a small amount. Their mean-spirited act plunged the town into darkness. It could take days before the copper was replaced.
Despite the problems, the sheer natural beauty of the river and the vast landscapes were wonderous to behold. Our whole visit and shoot would not have been possible but for the help, efficiency and sheer determination of the Congolese Sleeping Sickness Programme. That they manage to get anything done at all is a minor miracle and a testament to their commitment and professionalism in a country where very little works.
