On Friday, we were introduced to the leaders of TB Proof, the organization our class will be collaborating with on our final film projects. We gathered in the business center and listened intently as Ingrid Schoeman, TB Proof’s operational manager, described the ways in which TB stigma operates in South Africa, how the illness can be treated, and the vital role that community health workers play in diagnosing and treating TB patients across the country. When Ingrid completed her presentation and stopped sharing her screen on the Zoom call, I noticed a third participant’s digital avatar appear on the digital meeting.
Professor Smith smiled widely when the unidentified participant turned his camera on: it was Arne von Delft, one of the co-founder’s of TB Proof who unexpectedly joined our meeting. “I know the focus of your projects is on TB but there’s a separate advocacy issue at play here,” Arne began. His subsequent words were eye opening, to say the least. Arne described how the community health workers, whose work in the battle against TB in South Africa is so sacred and important, are one of the least supported groups of workers in the country. They experience “deprivation and suffering,” they are expected to carry the burden of emotional workplace trauma on their own, and they are compensated with below minimum wage salaries, Arne coining their work “modern day slavery.”
While I initially figured that my film group would focus on the community health workers’ vital role in South Africa’s TB response, Arne had the ability to open the group’s eyes to a brand new set of important issues and questions. After our meeting ended, I spoke with some of my group members about potentially focusing our film on the community health workers themselves, encompassing their struggles, their discouragement, and the structural violence they face on a daily basis.
Arne’s interjection during this meeting represents a common theme I have been witnessing on this trip so far, involving the cascade potential of individual voices. If it wasn’t for Arne’s urgent speech regarding the treatment of CHWs, I’m not sure whether my group would consider creating a film about this topic and potentially gearing it towards an audience of policy makers and politicians.
Arne’s ability to change the thinking and focus of our group reminds me of one of the many stories Lwando Xaso (pictured) told us at the Constitutional Court yesterday. Lwando described that during her clerkship, she was hesitant to eat the food served by two inmates on one of her first visits to a South African prison with Justice Edwin Cameron. Despite her initial reluctance, Lwando was inspired by Justice Cameron’s compassion and logic that “a nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens but its lowest ones.” So, she joined Justice Cameron in eating and enjoying a meal prepared by two convicted rapists, as this act symbolized a willingness to move forward and create a more free, forgiving country.
Both Arne and Justice Cameron show that individuals have the power to change the thinking, the direction, and the behavior of others, which I think is so valuable. I am excited to witness my group’s film project unfold, in light of Arne’s vital words and positions.
