Videos

Rx FOR SURVIVAL - THE HEROES

Produced by WGBH in 2006.

Rx FOR SURVIVAL - THE HEROES is a 2-hour special that focuses on the individual heroes whose tireless perseverance saves millions of lives across the globe. From young polio warriors in India to armies if grandmothers in Nepal, THE HEROES takes viewers inside the stirring campaigns that have brought renewed faith to poor communities from Africa to South America. This unique program is the true story of individuals whose creativity, leadership and determination are finally giving hope to people who have known only poverty and disease, but who can now dream of a safer and healthier future.

The stories told include:

a. A young businessman leads a pioneering HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment program in Botswana, and with universal testing, free antiretrovirals and a new health infrastructure in place, he begins redefining the way African nations fight AIDS.

b. Two doctors working in Peru stop a deadly, highly infectious strain of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) from spreading worldwide. Their innovative community-based care program has become an MDR-TB treatment model recommended by the World Health Organization.

c. A group of grand prix racers run sidecar-equipped motorcycles in several African countries as mini- ambulances and train health workers to drive and repair them, delivering life-saving care and supplies like mosquito nets to Africans in remote areas.

d. Volunteer armies of 49,000 grandmothers in Nepal distribute Vitamin A capsules to 3.5 million children in just two days, convincing parents that a Vitamin A capsule taken twice a year can save their children's lives.

e. An engineer builds a piped water system and channels clean water that supports population growth and commerce in a small village in Uganda.

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