Pop star Samantha Mumba visits Zambia as a representative of UNICEF Ireland.
In Zambia, almost 30,000 babies are born HIV positive each year and AIDS has left more than a million children orphaned. The Monze Rural Health Centre provides free education, medical care and counselling to those affected by the disease.
Samantha Mumba, whose father comes from Zambia, visits the centre to highlight the problem and raise awareness of the challenges the Zambian people face.
We have so much and they have so so little and they still manage to smile.
A child immunisation programme is ongoing in Zambia to keep the country free from polio. Samantha Mumba's aunt, Dr Dorothy Mumban, is a doctor at the Monze Clinic. Samantha Mumba had the opportunity to inoculate some of the children including some of her cousins from polio. While polio is under control, AIDS is the big threat in Zambia.
The disease is systematically eroding an entire generation leaving the children behind.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 25 April 2003. The reporter is Deirdre McCarthy.
