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Gannow lives alone and isolated in his compound in Inkouregao. The locals avoid him, calling Gannow and those like him “The Bowa”. He is infected with the parasitic disease Lymphatic Filariasis, and it has left his body shockingly swollen and deformed.
Lymphatic Filariasis is transmitted by mosquitoes. As the mosquito bites a human, parasites swim into the bloodstream and move to the lymphatic system where they multiply, producing millions of worms and irreparably damaging the lymphatic system, spreading lymph fluid through the body. The skin and underlying tissues swell and thicken. The disfiguration caused by the disease most commonly occurs in the legs, arms and genitals.
Gannow has suffered with Lymphatic Filariasis since childhood, but it is as a man that he has been worst affected. Due to the length of his infection, the lymph fluids have found their way to his scrotum, swelling his testicles to gross proportions. He finds moving around to be near impossible, and is in constant and extreme pain. He is unable to have children.
Gannow's wife left him because of his condition, and he cannot work. However, Niger's new national health policy has given Gannow and those like him a ray of hope. L.F. is treatable to an extent, and the parasites can be stopped with a simple course of Albendazole and Mectizan. Though this is not a cure, it will kill the parasites and prevent any further damage. This treatment has never been available to Gannow until now.
Ali, Inkouregao's voluntary drug distributor, has ensured that Gannow has eventually received the correct treatment for his condition. The swelling on his scrotum has been operated on and removed, though the damage wreaked by the disease cannot be undone. The government of Niger hope to make the treatment available across the country to all ages.
It is estimated that, with the new drug distribution policies, LF could be eliminated within five years, and cases like Gannow's resigned to the history books, but there remains much work to be done.
It is the third day of filming at Inkourigow, a village in the south-east of Niger. Distracted by large orange-faced geckos skipping up the walls, and fighting torpor brought on by a severely hot sun, I am face to face with the key figure of the film, Ali, and feeling a familiar dread.
Every time I go to sub-Saharan Africa I look forward to it, but when I am on the plane, my soul is in revolt. I do not want the physical discomfort of travel nor do I want to face human suffering. This feeling haunts me until I meet someone like Ali, and then, with relief, I realize the problem is all me.
Ali is a farmer, with two wives and nine children. He is content, dignified, generous, and loved, not a ‘victim'. Living with a virtually nonexistent health service, with child mortality at 26%, with no guarantee even of food, he is focused on the good in his life, which means his family, village community and Allah. His optimism even extends to me, Patrick Duval the cameraman, Michael Whitehouse the sound-recordist, and Nathan Harrison, the brilliant assistant producer who had found him. We all have something to learn from him.
But times are a-changing. A new simple idea has emerged to persuade separate, conflicting aid agencies and charities to work as one. Organised by Niger's own experts, eight million people will receive drugs for five major diseases in just a few weeks.
What made this possible? Not the collaboration per se, but one crucial insight: untrained but respected community members could be trusted to distribute the drugs. Ordinary people making a profound change – people like Ali.
