Fighting Uganda's Nodding Syndrome

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Collines Angwech grew up in Northern Uganda, an area that bore the brunt of armed attacks by the Lord's Resistance Army. Collines spent a lot of her childhood on the run from them. Then ten years ago, a mysterious illness started affecting children. It's been given the name nodding syndrome because one of the signs that there's something wrong is that the child starts dropping his or her head as if they're falling asleep. The body and brain stop growing, and the child suffers fits. Researchers are looking into the possibility that it is caused by the same parasite - a worm - that triggers river blindness. Most of the affected children aren't getting the care they need, but Collines has devoted herself to looking after them, at a centre set up by a charity. Shane Koyczan was the most bullied boy at his school in Yellowknife in Canada. He poured his feelings about it into a poem called To This Day, which went viral. Shane now tours the world with his poetry: he's performed for the Dalai Lama, and at the opening ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics. South African football coach Dumisani Ntombela is taking the football leagues by storm. He is blind but he has come up with a strategy to find out where the ball is on the field, and who is running with it. Mpho Lakaje spoke to him. (Picutre courtesy of Collines Angwech.)