Taking Away the Distance: A Young Orphan's Journey and the AIDS Epidemic in Africa Crusade to Unite Children Orphaned by the Epidemic
Filmmaker Roston first met Kevin Sumba in 2001 during the making of 14 Million Dreams, a documentary profiling five children orphaned by the AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa. By age ten, Kevin had lost both parents to AIDS and has since lived alone in a Kenyan shack without plumbing or electricity. Five years later, Roston returns to the slum where Kevin still roasts peanuts to pay for food, struggles to stay in school, and wonders how to stay alive. Kevin, now 17, is fast approaching manhood in a region where 40 percent of girls his age are HIV positive. He needs answers, but all his community leaders prescribe are abstinence and prayer. Together, he and Roston set out to find answers for Kevin's questions and, in doing so, forge a bond that is both touching and inspiring. Determined to make a difference, Kevin journeys from New York to Nairobi, where he confronts pharmaceutical giants, religious leaders, and powerful politicos in his quest to bring about change in a world where sex is literally a matter of life and death. Recommended for all libraries.--Jeannne Bogino, New Lebanon Lib., New York --Library Journal, November 15, 2007