Since the Film was shown

Immediately after the first screening True Vision was inundated with calls from viewers wanting to donate to help the children in the film and those like them.

We set up the Orphans of Nkandla Trust to channel funds as efficiently as possible to the nuns in Nkandla, and around £50,000 has been sent to the Nardini sisters through the trust.

The Chief Executive of the charity telephone fundraising company, Pell & Bales, Simon Pell, saw the film and contracted us the next day. He said it had reminded him why he set up the company, and he wanted to make helping the children of Nkanlda a priority. His company has fundraised in numerous ways, and paid for the most effective fundraisers to go out to Nkandla to meet Sister Hedwig and the children.

Another viewer simply flew to Durban the morning after seeing the film. He arrived at the airport, hailed a cab and said “Take to Nkandla”. 6 hours later, as it was getting dark, he arrived at the convent. Since then he has set up his own charity and has been providing fresh fruit every day for all the schools in the Nkandla area.

The most influential viewers however, were Richard Curtis and Elton John.

Elton was sent a DVD of the film by a friend of his, Rafi Manoukian. Rafi wanted to give a copy of the film to every guest at the White Tie & Tiara Ball. Instead, we edited a five minute section of the film for the Ball. As a result the sum raised by the ball was doubled from the previous year’s £1.6 million to £3.2 million.

Several hundred thousand of that went to Nkandla and paid for a new secure pharmacy to be built at the hospital which enabled the area to be included in a pilot Anti-Retro Viral programme.

The Elton John AIDS Foundation also funded an extensive programme of rural carers, visiting people with HIV/AIDS in their homes.

The following January Elton and David Furnish visited Nkandla while we were there filming the Orphans Update. Elton bought a pick-up truck for Sister Hedwig, and invited Mbali, Sne and Sister Hedwig to that year’s White Tie & Tiara Ball, as well as committing the Foundation to continuing to support the community for many years to come.

Meanwhile, Richard Curtis had been busy. He wanted to use an extract of Orphans in the Vicar of Dibley Xmas Special, to launch the Make Poverty History campaign. We agreed to this on condition that Comic Relief was doing something for HIV/AIDS affected children in Southern Africa. It turned out that Comic Relief was not funding any such programmes, but very quickly agreed that they should and committed over £1 million to a range of programmes helping orphaned and vulnerable children in South Africa.

The film also inspired the residents in a small town in California to “adopt” Nkandla and set up a twin-town scheme. The continue to support the community on a wider scale – mainly education in local schools and feeding programmes.

In my BAFTA acceptance speech that year, I mentioned the figured of “over £1 million going to help orphaned and vulnerable children as a direct result of this film”. Richard Curtis told me later that night that the true figure was at least ten times that, as he had shown footage of Mbali & Sne to numerous world leaders including Gordon Brown and George Bush, and he believed that footage had been essential in getting many of the concessions he won for Make Poverty History.

Today, Mbali and Sne are both thriving in schools paid for by viewers, as well as the other children. The EJAF continues to employ many health workers in Nkandla. And orphaned and vulnerable children in numerous other parts of Southern Africa are continuing to benefit from projects funded as a direct result of the film.