Open End

Project on the occasion of the German Cultural Weeks in Southern Africa dealing with the problem of HIV/AIDS in South Africa, shot november 2004 in townships around Pretoria and Johannesburg. 4 series:

1. The St. Francis Care Center in Boksburg is home to approximately 35 people suffering of AIDS-related illness, ca. 1/3 of them terminally ill and bed-ridden. The numbers vary because almost every week somebody passes away. The Center has its own cooling room for eight bodies, which is sometimes overcrowded. 2. The Rainbow Cottage is part of the St. Francis Care Center and home to 30 abandoned or orphaned children from birth to seven years of age. 25 of them are HIV positive. 3. Christina was infected with the virus by her husband who already died of the consequences of the disease. 4. After being raped at the age of 17, Gugu Dlamini was not only infected with syphilis and HIV, but also pregnant and forced by her mother to give birth to the child. Her daughter, Lungile, has tested HIV positive until the age of seven. Since 2001 she has tested negative.