Nigeria's Patient 'Prisoners'
Nigerian patients held in hospital because they can’t pay their medical bills.In March 2016, a young woman went into labour. She was rushed to a local, private hospital in south-east Nigeria where she gave birth by caesarean section. But when the hospital discovered this teenage mother didn’t have the money to pay for her treatment, she and her son were unable to leave. They remained there for 16 months – until the police arrived and released them.This is not an isolated case. In Nigeria, very few health services are free of charge, and campaigners estimate that thousands have been detained in hospitals for failing to pay their bills. It’s become an increasingly high-profile issue – one couple have been awarded compensation after going through the courts. For Assignment, Linda Pressly explores a widespread abuse – meeting victims, and the hospital managers attempting to manage their budgets in a health system under enormous pressure, where only 5% of Nigerians are covered by health insurance. Producer: Josephine Casserly (Photo: Ngozi Osegbo was awarded compensation by a court after she and her husband were detained in a hospital because they couldn't pay their medical bills. BBC PHOTO)
22 Nov 201827min
The Number One Ladies’ Landmine Agency
We follow a unique group of Sahrawi women working alongside the world’s longest minefield, the 2,700km sand wall or berm built by Morocco across the region. Baba, Minetou, Nora and the team work in temperatures exceeding 42°c (107°f), hundreds of miles from even rudimentary medical care, risking their lives in Western Sahara’s so-called “Liberated Territories” east of the Berm, clearing some of the seven million landmines and unexploded bombs left over from the still unresolved conflict between Morocco and the ethnic Sahrawi liberation movement, the Polisario Front.
21 Nov 201827min
Argentina’s Feminist Tango
Argentina is on the brink of a female-led revolution, and in Buenos Aires women are fighting for an equal footing everywhere from the institutions of government to the Tango hall. Since 2015 political pressure around women’s rights has peaked, following a string of horrifying femicides. It spawned a social media movement #NiUnaMenos, and continent wide strikes and protests. Katy Watson speaks to the activists who started this latest feminist wave and how tango is being re-interpreted with equality in mind.
20 Nov 201827min
The Eternal Life of the Instant Noodle
What is the most traded legal item in US prisons? Instant Noodles. Celia Hatton explores the story behind instant noodles. It's a journey that starts in Japan, at the nation's instant noodle museum, and then takes her to China, still the world's number one market for "convenient noodles" as they're known there. And she hears why instant noodles have emerged as the prisoners' currency of choice.
18 Nov 201850min
Everyday Americans 3: Opioids and the Next Generation
In Louisville, Kentucky, drug overdose related deaths are twice the national average. What will the impact be on the next generation? This fly-on the-wall documentary series follows the work of a team of reporters from the Louisville Courier Journal. We hear of babies born addicted as a result of their mothers’ drug use, an inspiring school choir and the families finding ways to face up to the epidemic. A mother is campaigning to hold pharmaceutical companies to account and citizens, faith groups and politicians are responding to the crisis.
16 Nov 20181h 6min
Everyday Americans 2: Law and Order and Opioids
Exploring how the opioid epidemic in America is impacting the criminal justice system. Through reporters on the Louisville Courier Journal we meet the drug court judge who tells us about her hopes for those going through the court. We attend the drug court graduation ceremony and follow the police as they search for drugs. And, we assess the impact on Louisville's city jail, which runs the state Kentucky's biggest detox centre.
16 Nov 201849min
Everyday Americans 1: The Opioid ‘Demon’
The opioid epidemic in America is hurting all levels of society – in this three part documentary series we explore its impact, in real-time, on people in one city, Louisville, Kentucky. We work with a team of reporters on the Louisville Courier Journal as they follow opioid stories across the community.
16 Nov 201851min
The Last Long Journey of the Herero
In 1904 the Herero people of South West Africa made their final stand against German Colonial troops with their backs against the slopes of Waterberg mountain in today’s Namibia. The battle marked the beginning of what has been called the first genocide of the 20th Century as tens of thousands were killed, driven into the desert to die and thousands more held in concentration camps. The Nama, another indigenous group suffered the same fate soon after. And their deaths fed a bizarre and gruesome trade in body parts, driven by racial anthropologists in Germany intent on proving the superiority of their own race.
14 Nov 201827min
