1. Various shots, Charity and Ibrahin preparing their son Jenai for school
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Charity, HIV patient:
“I always say you give me joy.”
3. Med shot, Charity receiving a kiss from her son Jenai
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Ibrahim, HIV patient:
“I feel proud he’s my child.”
5. Various shots, Ibrahim leaves his home with his son Jenai
6. Various shots, Charity washing clothes
7. Med shot, Charity and Ibrahim hanging clothes to dry
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Ibrahim, HIV patient:
“When she announced her status to me I was cool with IT, since I love her and that HIV can’t kill me because I’m leading a positive life.”
9. Med shot, Charity and Ibrahim hanging clothes to dry
10. Various shots, Charity taking her antiretroviral pills
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Charity, HIV patient:
“I was determined to have a negative child so my clinical days, my drugs, my everything was always important to me.”
12. Various shots, Charity advising other HIV mothers
13. Various shots, patient with nurse
14. Various shots, UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé at HIV clinic
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Michel Sidibé, Executive Director, UNAIDS:
“And we want Ghana to lead this baby free of HIV. Thank you for your work. You agree huh (talking to baby in his arms) when you will be president”
16. Various shots, mother and child with nurse taking blood samples
17. Various shots, nurse taking blood sample from patient
18. SOUNDBITE (English) Christiana Nyantakyi, Senior Nursing Officer, La General Hospital:
“We started in 2003 with just 23 clients, now we test thousands of women a year.”
19. Various shots, Charity feeding Jenai

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Storyline

For Charity and Ibrahim their son, Jenai, is a gift.

SOUNDBITE (English) Charity, HIV patient:
“I always say you give me joy.”

SOUNDBITE (English) Ibrahim, HIV patient:
“I feel proud he’s my child.”

The couple who live in Accra in Ghana feel particularly blessed because Jenai was born HIV free.
Charity was diagnosed with HIV shortly after her first husband died 10 years ago.
Five years later she married Ibrahim – he does not have HIV.

SOUNDBITE (English) Ibrahim, HIV patient:
“When she announced her status to me I was cool with IT, since I love her and that HIV can’t kill me because I’m leading a positive life.”

Charity knew that the anti-retroviral drugs she was taking to protect her life would also protect her child from HIV.

SOUNDBITE (English) Charity, HIV patient:
“I was determined to have a negative child so my clinical days, my drugs, my everything was always important to me.”

The risk of a child getting HIV can be reduced to less than 5% if ARVs are made available to them and their mothers.

But even though the virus can be stopped, 1000 babies are born with HIV everyday.

UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé has made stopping new HIV infections among children by 2015 a top priority.

SOUNDBITE (English) Michel Sidibé, Executive Director, UNAIDS:
“And we want Ghana to lead this baby free of HIV. Thank you for your work. You agree huh (talking to baby in his arms) when you will be president”

UNAIDS and its partners have launched the Global Plan towards elimination of new HIV infections among children and keeping their mothers alive.
Ghana is one of 22 priority countries and is speeding up efforts to reach pregnant women with HIV services

SOUNDBITE (English) Christiana Nyantakyi, Senior Nursing Officer, La General Hospital:
“We started in 2003 with just 23 clients, now we test thousands of women a year.”

For mothers like Charity getting access to essential HIV services can’t happen soon enough.
She wants her joy to be the same for mothers everywhere.