Children of the Jungle

  

A film about infant mortality and Millennium goals                                                                deep in the jungle of West-Papua.

In the spring of  2008 midwife Alda Janssen and medical doctor Anita Rijneveld were on a mission from the Dutch foundation SDSP (Stichting Duurzame Samenleving Papoea Barat ) For weeks they crossed the rainforest of West-Papua, Indonesia.

Documentary  filmmaker Wiek Lenssen traveled along with them, on assignment for  the regional (Limburgian) tv-channel L1TV. They embarked upon a challenging expedition ,  to visit the remote Papuan villages deep in the jungle, together with ten Papuans from the Kebar valley. This resulted in more than just a filmed reportage of an investigation of the exact infant mortality rate in West-Papua.

A fascinating travelogue of almost one hour leads the spectator to another world, a complet different way of life, completely dependent of nature. An existence that has both its adventurous and its hard sides. Especially for the Papuan women, for whome every delivery, every child,  is a struggle on th edge between life and death.

The film and the investigation unevitably lead to the conclusion, that the infant mortality numbers  as estimated by Unicef,  for this remote outback of the wor are incorrect and should definitely be heightened considerably.

Especially with an eye on the UN Millennium Goals for 2015, to bring down infant mortality worldwide

Length 57’  Dutch and Indonesian dialogues, English subtitles.

More info on: WWW.WIEKLENSSENFILM.NL      and:         WWW.SDSP.NL

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This production could be realised with financial contributions from: