CIS, Central & East Asia
Ukraine
Being Positive
In 1997 Tamila Kotlyarevska was admitted to a psychiatric clinic in the Ukrainian city of Poltava. As one of the first drug addicts in the region to be diagnosed as HIV positive, she was seen as a particularly dangerous case - and a warning that drug addicts could fuel a major HIV/AIDS pandemic. But Tamara survived, overcame her addiction and started the ‘Light of Hope Center’ to help other Ukrainians living with AIDS. The Center provides a range of support for AIDS sufferers – from legal aid to prescriptions to firewood for heating. With HIV increasing by 20 per cent every year Tamila is determined to overcome the stigma still attached to the disease in Ukraine.
Production company links/email: 5TV, email 5TV or email Writer Lidiya Taran
Kazakhstan
Hope for Life
When Nagima Plokhikh was diagnosed with breast cancer, she insisted on having an operation. But the cancer spread, Nagima had to have more and more operations, and the experience changed her life. Confounding her doctors’ predictions, Nagima survived and set up the Healthy Asia Foundation to help other women cancer sufferers in Kazakhstan survive too. Kazak women are often reluctant to be tested for cancer, scared of being left by their husbands or losing their jobs. Nagima has introduced screening in offices and factories and is now working with the trade unions campaigning for statutory paid time off work for women receiving treatment.
Production company email: Producer Natalia Brattseva
Related links: Healthy Asia Foundation (Russian only)
Uzbekistan
Seeking Happiness
Nuria Turiyeva campaigns against the disturbing new rise in bigamy in Uzbekistan. As Deputy head of the Uzbek Women’s Association, she tries to let women know that bigamy - under Uzbekistan’s Constitution as well as its Family, Labour and Criminal Codes – is illegal, punishable by three years in jail. But some Uzbek men now see taking a second wife as a symbol of power and prosperity. Economic dependency means first wives have little say in decisions, because, as Nuria says, “in Uzbekistan the majority of women don’t know their rights. They are not aware of the law.”
Production company email: Producer Mukhayyo Kurbanova
China
Geng Liufen’s New World
Geng Liufen met her husband in the large city of Kunming. But when she accompanied him back to his remote home village of Zuji for the spring festival, Liufen had a major culture shock. Uneducated and with no access to the outside world, Zuji’s women were wholly dependent on their menfolk. Liufen hated the isolation and poverty so much that she ran away three times, leaving her husband and daughter behind in the village. But she finally decided it was up to her to change the status quo and help Zuji’s women get the education, training and health information they needed to transform their lives.
Production company links/email: CCTV, Geng Luifen's New Planet or email Half the Sky
