Living Rights: Roy, Yoshi, Toti and Lena

LIVING RIGHTS is a series in six episodes about the daily reality, conflicts and dilemmas concerning the rights of children, of which NISHA (nominated for the 2001 Silver Wolf) was the first episode. This year, four new episodes have their premières. ROY deals with a boy living in a small village in Peru and digging for gold in small mines. A relief organisation tries to convince parents that children should attend school and the work in the mine is bad for their health. YOSHI shows sixteen-year-old Yoshinori, who suffers from a form of autism. This is why one year ago he was transferred to a special school, but this is not attuned to what he is capable of and needs. Most of his new classmates are more seriously handicapped than he is. TOTI is a Masai girl of fourteen. When she was eleven, her mother told her that she would be married off. The cattle her family will receive is badly needed to survive. She decides to run away, so her twin sister is married off in her place. Eleven-year-old LENA lives with her foster mother Galah in a village near the nuclear reactor of Chernobyl. Lena's real mother lives in Minsk, where radio activity readings are much lower. She is unable to take care of Lena, but perhaps the family in Italy where she already lodged twice may have her.