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How did you come to tell this important story?
I've been in the business for 14 years, working my way up from researcher to producer. I spent many years at NBC, working on programs with Maria Shriver, Tom Brokaw, Forrest Sawyer and produced the special WITNESS TO THE EXECUTION. I applied for a Pew Fellowship, which is for mid-career journalists. You have to pitch a foreign news story that is not being reported in the U.S. I really wanted to do an AIDS piece — it's the most important story in the whole world. So I started doing research and saw the statistics that young women were getting AIDS at the fastest rate of all and I wanted to understand why. It turned out that a lot of that had to do with rape.
I went to South Africa in the fall and the whole issue erupted. While I was there the story of a baby who had been raped hit the headlines.
Can you put your finger on the reason behind the rise in child rape?
I thought I could go and find the answer but there are so many reasons: poverty, lack of access to adequate health care and education, splintered families, men's low sense of self-worth. For many, there is little to hope for: People are frightened, dying, they are burying their families. It seems violence is sometimes an opportunity to have a little bit of power. What about "The Myth" — that having sex with a virgin can cure AIDS?
Well, I've never known what it's like to be so desperate, so sick — they must be on a different plane. But we have to remember that this myth isn't exclusive to South Africa — it's in many places. And it's throughout history — it used to be thought to cure syphilis. All the people — church, community leaders, government, sangomas (faith healers) — need to get on the same page about this and address it head-on.
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