On World AIDS Day, MSF is asking nine drug companies to listen to the millions without access to adequate AIDS treatment.

Gilliam 2009

UNICEF celebrates 20 years of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Listen to 20 kids tell us their rights in Cape Town, South Africa!

Gilliam/UNICEF 2009

Kinshasa Music

In Kinshasa I met up with Mark Nunn and Joe Herrmann recording Ocean de la Clef, a band of young super-talented Kinois, working on a CD addressing various social issues for Christian AID. We collaborated for an afternoon and this is what we came up with. The song is SAVE, and talks about using condoms, but also about general access to medical care to know your status, take your meds and general watch out for yourself. Enjoy the music!

Ireland's Dustin the Turkey visits South Africa

Household name Dustin the Turkey visited South Africa from Ireland to investigate Early Childhood Development in KwaZuluNatal. The ECD programme of the LETCEE NGO is being used as a best model practice by UNICEF. This was good fun - the kids loved Dustin and KwazuluNatal is breathtaking!

A piece for UNICEF website and UNIFEED.

Cameroon - Silent Emergency

May 2009 trip to Cameroon with UNICEF, a silent emergency in Eastern Cameroon.

On the surface, the Refugee situation in Eastern Cameroon looks like a success.  Since 2002, over 60,000 Central African Refugees have been integrated into Cameroonian communities.  There are no refugee camps, and there is a peaceful co-existence between Cameroonian and Central African.  These Central African Refugees are fleeing kidnappings and killings by groups of armed men and bandits from various Central African Republic ex-military groups as well as rebels fleeing the Chadian conflict to the North. 

Click here to Watch the Video on YOUTUBE.

Ivory Coast May 2009

In May I went to Ivory Coast with UNICEF to cover the Tetanus Vaccination Campaign"

Sabra Seydou arrived at the Abobo Kennedy clinic in Abidjan with only a few minutes to spare before giving birth.  This is her second visit to the Abobo Kennedy clinic in Abidjan since the beginning of her pregnancy.  Extreme poverty has meant Sabra could not afford pre-natal tests or consultations.  She was however able to have her first vaccination against tetanus, provided free by the Ivoirian government. Her second vaccination, that which would provide immunity against the deadly bacteria for her self and her unborn child, was scheduled for next week.....

Watch Video on YOUTUBE: Tetanus - Ivory Coast 

Brazilian Dance/Martial Art Capoeira Empowering SA Youth

Twice a week in some of the more disadvantaged townships around Cape Town, kids between the ages of 8 and 12 are learning Capoeira. The dance-martial art from Brazil, which has its roots in African Slavery, is coming back to the continent and is serving as a  source of development, discipline and self-expression for some of South Africa’s youth. 

For AP Television - Horizons

New Homes for African Penguins

The African penguin, also called the jackass because of its bray, is the only one to inhabit the African continent. It has shorter feathers than the Antarctic birds and is just 50 centimeters (20 inches) high. 

Numbers curious creatures have plummeted from around 3 million in the 1930s to just 120,000 because of overfishing and pollution. Some experts fear that the species will become extinct in as little as 11 years. 

Recently 200 specially designed nesting boxes big enough to house a happy family and protect the eggs and fledgling chicks from predators, and above all, from the sweltering African sun.   

Video by Eva Gilliam for AP (click on link below)

Park rangers build homes for penguins facing extinction

Organic Gardening in Cape Town's Townships

Harvest of Hope is a project of NGO Abalimi Bezekhaya, meaning “Farmers of Home” in Xhosa.  Abalimi is an urban agriculture and environmental action association operating in the poor townships of Philippi, Khayelitsha, Nyanga and surrounding areas on the Cape Flats near Cape Town, South Africa. Working with over 2000 individual member gardeners, Abalimi promotes self-sustainability and small, organic gardening practices.

Zimbabwean Playwright Jonathan Nkala Tells His Story

The World (radio): Hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans illegally cross the border into South Africa searching for a better future. But they don't always find one. Many wind up homeless and jobless. Jonathan Nkala has written a play about his experience.

(radio) http://www.theworld.org/?q=node/23804