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"Is, for such ambition, this earth
not too small?” - Friedrich Nietzsche
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For a long time,
people cultivated their land.
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There were elephants, lions...
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But when they began
discovering mineral resources,
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they stopped cultivating the land.
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They only wanted to mine the ore.
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But in 2010,
a company closed the area.
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They forced the population to leave,
there were shootings, chaos...
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and the people were full of fear
and fled.
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The company took over.
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Now, it is a forbidden area.
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THE GOLD RUSH
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My name is Marcelino Miguel.
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I have four children.
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I liked searching for rubies but...
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the proprietors of the forest
forbid it.
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And if they find you,
you will not be forgiven.
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The ruby is a very appreciated stone.
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One gram can be worth
€1,000 or €2,000...
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Even a small stone
can solve your problems at home.
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This job depends entirely on luck
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because when you go in there
you can easily die.
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Hey...
What are you doing?
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- Here?
- Yes.
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I'm looking for stones.
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This is dangerous.
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This is very dangerous,
because in here
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the earth can cave in at any time.
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My brother Ramadam used to say:
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"I'm going to find a thousand
stones in that cave!"
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There, the place is called Ncoloto.
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"I'll even find rubies!"
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He went into a cave like this one.
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He went in to try and dig.
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Since there were lots of stones there,
it filled up with people.
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He was digging
and the earth caved in and he died.
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But what can I do?
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I have to keep trying.
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If I die, it is God's will.
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That's why I am here
inside this cave
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to be able to eat,
and to feed my children.
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Illegal miners come here,
but they are afraid.
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When the company discovers there are
people prospecting and finding stones,
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they go and bury them
with their machines.
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Last month, 25 miners were buried.
They did not come out.
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Hey, friend!
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THE VALUE OF THE RUBY DEPOSIT
IN THE CAPE DELGADO-MONTEPUEZ REGION
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IS AROUND 1 BILLION $.
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60% OF THE POPULATION LIVES
ON LESS THAN $1.25 A DAY.
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Wilson.
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The police saw me prospecting,
and started chasing me in Nañupo.
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I fell in a hole, and that's when
I hurt myself here.
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The pain is very intense.
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Even though he denies it,
he was a victim of assault.
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These marks show
he was probably assaulted.
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He may not tell the true
for fear of retaliation.
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Last week there was a massive
police presence in these areas.
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He was running from the police.
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Rubies. A ruby mine.
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When they go into the forest,
they spend a long time there
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dirty, without bathing...
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If a woman comes,
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around five men sleep
with the same woman.
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When they come here,
they have syphilis, gonorrhea, herpes...
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It's normal to treat six patients
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for STDs in one day
(sexually transmitted diseases).
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Are there women in the mine?
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Yes, but they don't dig.
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He has a sexually transmitted disease.
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He doesn't remember who
he was with recently.
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It's a chaos.
They are illegal miners...
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They live in precarious conditions.
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Money!
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The stone!
I'm going to show you the stone!
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Stones are good.
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When they come back from the mines,
they consume a lot of drugs and alcohol.
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There is a lot of unprotected sex
in this area.
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This causes a lot of infections:
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sexually transmitted diseases, HIV...
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Cultivating the land
isn't profitable anymore.
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The land has nothing left to offer...
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there's pollution in the air,
in the rivers...
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Agriculture does not satisfy
daily needs.
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Many women stop working the land
and go in search of money.
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They leave their homes,
abandon their husbands...
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Two or three days go by,
they can't find money...
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They are hungry because
they stopped cultivating the land...
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so they have sex to survive.
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She's alone...
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She comes here every day.
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Many young girls leave their homes
and come here to sell their bodies
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to the miners.
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My name is Toni Zeferino.
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I've been here for three years,
mining for gold.
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That's why I know gold,
I have a lot of experience.
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Gold isn't like rubies.
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Gold requires more work
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and you don't earn very much.
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That's what the work is like here.
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It's a man's job.
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The boys come here to work,
to try and survive.
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I have a son.
He lives with his mother in Nampula.
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I haven't seen him for two years...
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I don't have money
to go and visit him.
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Here you work in fear...
fear of having to run, to flee.
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Suddenly you hear shots...
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That's why there is
always fighting here.
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There are drugs, prostitution...
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I'd like to get out of here,
but I don't have the means.
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I'm searching for gold.
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This is gold.
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It's difficult to find gold,
to know where to look.
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You work very hard
for very little gold.
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Less than half a gram a day.
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A gram is 2,000MTs ($25).
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They take it far away,
and they make lots of money
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because they sell it for more.
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It seems like there aren't any
places left with a lot of gold.
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There are only places like this one,
without much gold.
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The gold is all gone.
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In this area
there used to be a lot of gold
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because a river ran through it.
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This was a river.
Until now, it was a river.
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The river dried up because
of so much digging.
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There's not even a drop down here.
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The people dried it all up.
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They say this country is rich...
I don't know if it's rich or not.
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I'm not rich. My country is rich,
but I'm not rich.
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I spend more and more time here,
in the mines,
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but I never achieve anything.
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- What are you doing tomorrow?
- I'm working.
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- Where do you work?
- In Nicuita.
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I'm here to talk about mercury.
You all know what that is, right?
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Mercury is sold here.
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People bring it from far away.
They bring it and they sell it here.
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And we buy it.
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This is the product.
This is mercury.
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It's this.
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When we use mercury
to meld gold, we burn it, right?
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And that smoke, when we inhale it,
where does it go?
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Into our bodies.
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And that water, where does it go?
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You bathe in it,
drink it, cook with it...
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We noticed that the food on the bottom
was a different color.
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We served the food right here
because we didn't have plates.
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Soon people started having symptoms:
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diarrhea, stomach ache...
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The water you drink
isn't good for you.
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It causes a lot of problems.
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It's harmful for our bodies.
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It can cause tremors
in young children.
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And in pregnant women
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it can cause delays
in the development of the fetus.
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Their brain may not work properly.
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For you, and for all of us
in the town,
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this mercury is harmful.
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It starts when you dump
the mercury into the water...
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and then it flows into the river...
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and the river flows into the sea...
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The fishermen go to fish in the sea,
then they sell us the poisoned fish.
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We want to minimize
the use of mercury.
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Because mercury is harmful not just
for one person, but for many people.
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FORCED BY POVERTY,
15 MILLION MINERS EXTRACT
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ROUGHLY 500 TONS OF GOLD
AROUND THE WORLD EACH YEAR.
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TO OBTAIN ONE GRAM OF GOLD,
THEY USE 1 – 15 GRAMS OF MERCURY.
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THE MERCURY USED IN TRADITIONAL MINING
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REPRESENTS 40% OF MERCURY EMISSIONS
ON THE PLANET.
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THE GOLD RUSH
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medicusmundi thanks
all the institutions
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that made this film possible,
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particularly the
Mozambique Ministry of Health (MISAU).
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The opinions here
express the feelings and experiences
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of reps of miners' organizations
and non-associated miners.
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To provide various standpoints
and confirm the information,
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we requested interviews
with local mining companies.
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Our request was turned down.
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Many thanks to the staff
of medicusmundi in Barcelona,
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Maputo and Cape Delgado
for making this documentary possible.
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Additional archives:
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Funding for this documentary
was provided by AECID,
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as per Agreement 14-CO1-424:
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“Strengthening, Advancement
and Defense
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of Primary Health Care
in Mozambique.”
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medicusmundi is responsible
for the contents,
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which do not necessarily reflect
AECID's views.
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This documentary has been disseminated
with the help of the EU.
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medicusmundi is solely responsible
for the contents,
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which should not be deemed to reflect
the views of the EU.
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Filmed in Mozambique.