Introduction

Premise
A decade ago Andrew Ross, a South African doctor and Elda Nsimbini a matron at Mosvold hospital in rural KwaZulu-Natal, took decisive action in a moment of crisis. Defying conventional wisdom, to fix a dysfunctional system, they began a mentoring program enabling youth from the district to qualify as healthcare professionals. Their drive was met with enthusiasm by determined local youth, like France Nxumalo and Dumisani Gumede, as they embarked on a process to transform their communities, while facing a legacy of repression and neglect and working under the scepter of disease, under pressure in a understaffed healthcare system, they set out to foster a new generation of healers from within the community they serve. With “love and discipline” as their mantra to overcome poverty and a multitude of obstacles, they embark on a process to transform a desperate situation to one of hope.

 

 

Synopsis
Doctor Andrew Ross explains how his life was transformed when he found himself facing the prospect of working in an under-staffed and remote rural hospital, and how the unlikely solution to his predicament lay with the people he set out to serve. The film traces the path from crisis to healing and hope and shows how, given the opportunity, individuals can transcend the grasp of poverty.

Background
As a young doctor, Andrew Ross made a personal commitment to work for 5 years at Mosvold Hospital in rural Ingwavuma, in a remote district of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. As he faces a crisis that would define his future, he finds a solution that will change his life and instill hope in the circumstances of those around him. With a critical shortage of hospital staff looming, he sets out to solve a big problem with a simple solution. Defying conventional wisdom he turns to the immediate community to find a long-term way of dealing with a global systemic problem - the shortage of rural healthcare practitioners. When Ross recalls the advice of his own mentor, instead of waiting for a solution to ʻarriveʼ he sets in motion steps to provide a resolution. Along with Elda Nsimbini, a matron at the hospital, they begin a mentoring program to enable indigent rural youth to qualify as healthcare professionals. In partnership with the local community they embark on a process to transform a desperate situation to one of hope.

Ross soon realizes that the wealth of enthusiasm and dedication from the youth in the community would vindicate his belief in their potential, while the various social pressures they face would provide an imperative to succeed not only academically, but as individuals serving their communities often under extremely difficult circumstances. He knows
that when there is so much at stake, success means more than passing academically, and that dedication and perseverance could foster a new generation of healers from within the community they serve. Now more than a fifteen years later a host of graduates from the program have faced extraordinary odds, while heeding the call to become
healers in their own communities and succeeding in their individual goals. Ross evaluates the program and takes stock in an open letter to friends of the program, contemplating and talking with enthusiasm about the strategies that he hopes will infuse future generations with a similar fervor for the calling. In so doing, he makes explicit to others that, given the opportunity, it is possible to succeed through what he calls
“transformational leadership”.

As is the case with many state health facilities, all of the hospitals in the district have struggled to find professional staff and this has often compromised the quality of service provided. This situation is in part due to appalling local standards of education, a high level of unemployment and a lack of appropriate role models. Based on a need to find
long-term professional staff for the hospitals to provide a service in the area, and the belief that people from the area have the potential to become health professionals, we see how he sets out to empower a new generation to become role models in their own right. Along the way we meet students, graduates and individuals moving from the periphery
to the forefront of defining their own futures, to face the harsh challenges of their generation and their communities,
with hope.

Currently the scholarship scheme is directly supporting students across disciplines such as Pharmacy, Physiotherapy, Medical Technology, Occupational therapy, Speech therapy, Medicine, Dental Therapy, Dentistry, Optometry, Social work, Environmental Health, Nutrition, Nursing, Audiology, Psychology and Radiography. Through some of the
individual grantees, we look at how a comprehensive program was set up to promote careers in health sciences, inspire scholars to dream about what was possible for them to achieve, raise awareness about HIV and AIDS, fund those accepted at university to study, mentor and support students at university and help integrate graduates into the
workforce in the district.

As Ross writes, he mentions some of the inspiring stories of students who made it despite the probability, and recalls why some did not. In writing his letter, Ross introduces us to some of the individuals who continue to build on the values he calls “the DNA” of the program, like Dumisani Gumede, who now mentors a new generation of students; like
Zamakhondlo Gumede, Poppy Zwane, Delani Nhlope and others, we see how the program works by looking at how Dumisani engages current grantees and advises them through their difficulties.

We share in the experiences of the grantees as they set out to study. We witness aspects of their journey of fascination and their education into the medical field as they discuss some of their challenges: overcoming rural-urban stigma, culture shock, gender issues, language barriers and other social and peer pressures. As Ross illuminates the steps of the scholarship program, we also meet successful graduates; for example, Optometrist France Nxumalo, one of the very first grantees, who visits his local school to share information and demonstrate his achievements, thereby inspiring youth in their communities. We join students volunteering at one of 5 district hospitals and graduates, embarking on their careers as healthcare professionals, while coming to understand some of the pressures and dynamics under which they operate. The district
provides health care to over 550 000 people in the Umkhanyakude district where TB, HIV, malaria, gastro, malnutrition, skin and parasitic infections are common, in addition to high levels of unemployment and limited access to quality education and learning opportunities.

We also see what has been at stake for them and what obstacles communities similar to their own have to negotiate. These are not only the communities they come from, but also the communities they will serve in the future. For example, someone like Nompumelelo Mthembu, an enthusiastic young girl from Mboza, who lives in one of the
communities in the district where the program is operational. Children such as Nompumelelo personify the social context where successful graduates such as Dumisani and France have come from. Understanding her world through her community gives us insight into what the students have accomplished. Nompumelelo works with her family, while
doing what it takes to survive, her education hangs in the balance, her future determined by hardship, while she harbors her own hopes and dreams. We come to understand some of the personal concerns that individuals in rural communities face on a daily basis and look with empathy at how the youth, in particular, deal with the lack of
infrastructure and some of the systemic social challenges they face in their communities. This view of the lives of rural children provides an insight into the context and cultural backdrop from which the students are selected, and also acknowledges their remarkable accomplishments in overcoming huge challenges. We see these intellectually talented and bright childrenʼs immense efforts just to attend school, the inadequacy of resources available to them and come to understand the odds of even hearing about the program and what it requires to qualify for admission to a university in the first instance.

It seems an almost impossible dream for a young rural girl such as Nompumelelo to become a doctor, or to access good healthcare. The power of the scholarship scheme is the story of hope it cradles - in its specific focus on rural youth. In this sense, therefore, the film shows in a myriad nuanced ways how it becomes possible for rural children to
“shatter the force-field of poverty” and for them to contribute to uplifting their communities. More than a decade later at the programʼs annual Imbizo, qualifying graduates and grantees meet to elect new leadership. The group gathers on a beach along the rural coastline to celebrate. Through the testimony of the obstacles and successes these individuals have collectively faced, we recognize the challenges the program has overcome in order to function and aims to sustain in the long term, and we also see how and why a program like this continues to succeed. Ultimately, through this web of experiences and insights, we are able to see first hand that it is possible for individuals to transcend poverty and contribute to transforming the circumstances of others. In this way, the film also presents a potential model for others.