Unit 7 / Listening 2B

Meeting with Sophie Vannier (Médecins sans Frontières)

Tom: Good afternoon Miss Vannier. Thank you for receiving us. I'm sure you're extremely busy, so we appreciate it greatly.

Sophie: I am busy, yes, of course - like everyone in this hospital. But I always talk to journalists if I can. They help to draw attention to our problems. So you see, if I receive you, it is not entirely out of -how do you say? - the kindness of my heart. We can be useful to each other.

Tom: I understand. We appreciate it all the same. Allow me to introduce my assistant, Gina Thomson. She would like to take a few photographs. With your permission of course.

Sophie: Pleased to meet you, Gina.

Gina: How do you do?

Sophie: I'm not actually in charge of the hospital. I work for Medecins sans Frontières, as you know, and I simply try to organise the medical care that we can bring to the sufferers from AIDS. But if you want to take photographs, I'm sure there will be no problem.

Gina: Who does run the hospital? We're a little confused about the organisation here. Why does it have two names - the Caledonian Clinic and the Jomo Kenyatta Hospital?

Sophie: It must seem confusing, indeed. And I don't really know the whole story myself, because I've only been here for eighteen months. But I can tell you what I know, if you like.

Tom: Anything you can tell us will be useful, I'm sure.

Sophie: The Caledonian Clinic was established at the beginning of the last century, in 1908, I think, by a missionary from Scotland. Its original purpose was to help the poor people of Nairobi who had no access to medical care. So you see, the situation is not at all different from a hundred years ago. Except that Nairobi today is much bigger, and there are far more people in need of care. Anyway, I don't quite know what happened when the Scottish missionary died - round about 1930 - but the mission of the clinic changed: instead of caring for the poor, it attracted the wealthy. We would say today that it went upmarket, I think. Probably for the same reason as always - it's easier to provide care for people who can pay than for people who can't. So the clinic became the place where the rich women of Nairobi - and when I say rich, I mean white, of course - came to have their babies. And that didn't really change even when Kenya became independent in 1961. About ten years ago, however, a new team of doctors and scientists arrived from Scotland and decided the clinic should return to its original mission. So for several years there was a mixture: wealthy private patients who continued to pay, and an increasing number of blacks without any money. The rich and the poor were in separate buildings, but inevitably at the reception desk or in the administrative departments they came into contact with each other - so, of course, little by little, the private patients decided the clinic was not as exclusive, not as smart, as it used to be, and they went elsewhere. So the clinic went downmarket again. And then three years ago the Kenyan government transformed it into a centre for the relief of AIDS: that means the pregnant women who come here now are nearly all HIV positive. And the name was changed from the Caledonian Clinic to the Jomo Kenyatta Hospital, in honour of the father of Kenyan independence.

Tom: Thank you, Miss Vannier. That gives us a much clearer view of the whole context.

Sophie: Please, call me Sophie.

Gina: I suppose your main problem here is funding, am I right? I mean, can the Kenyan government actually afford to provide all the necessary services?

Sophie: No, it can't. You are right, of course. It's not a problem specific to Kenya. The whole of Africa is concerned. But to understand how big the problem is, you need to know more about the AIDS situation here.

Tom: Er.yes. But in fact -

Sophie: There are more than 25 million Africans now living with HIV, and last year alone 2.4 million Africans died from the disease. About half of all 15-year-olds are expected to die. In Kenya, there are over a million orphans due to -

Tom: Ahem! Sophie.

Sophie: Yes?

Tom: I have a confession to make. I know the problem of AIDS is terrible and the work you're doing is very important, but actually. Well, we didn't come here to talk about AIDS.

Sophie: I said that I always speak to journalists because they can help us. Now I'm not so sure. I hope you're not wasting my time.

Tom: I don't think so. The problem we want to talk about is very different but it's very important as well. We're investigating the activities of a company called Beautiful Babes. You said that a team of scientists came from Scotland about ten years ago to work here. We think that two of those scientists are connected with Beautiful Babes.

Sophie: And why is this such an important problem?

Gina: A few years ago, there was a sudden and dramatic rise in the number of miscarriages and babies born with deformities in this hospital, wasn't there?

Sophie: Yes, there was. I read about it in the hospital records. But I don't think anyone ever found out the reason for it.

Gina: We think those scientists from Beautiful Babes were carrying out genetic experiments using pregnant African women. And now their technique is perfected, they're using it to produce the babies that people want: intelligent, good-looking and so on. Designer babies, in fact.

Sophie: That's horrific! But do you have any proof?

Tom: Not yet. We were hoping you might know something about the activities of the scientists that came out here.

Sophie: It was before I arrived, and the hospital records are not very informative about that period. But let me see. I do have something which might interest you. Right here in this drawer. I found it a couple of months ago behind a ventilator. At first I thought I should send it back to Scotland, but when I read it, it seemed a bit strange, so I kept it. And then I was so busy that I forgot all about it.

Gina: A file. What's in it?

Sophie: It's a file about a Canadian couple who corresponded with Beautiful Babes. But Beautiful Babes seems to be a modelling agency. That's why I thought it was strange - I couldn't understand what a file like that was doing in a hospital. But perhaps the couple were doing what you say - shopping for the perfect baby. You know more about that company than I do, so perhaps the file will make more sense to you. But I will give it to you on one condition.

Tom: What's that?

Sophie: I show you around the hospital and you write an article about the work we do here. About the impossible task we face. And about the fact that the multinational pharmaceutical companies are not doing enough to help us.

Gina: Of course we will, Sophie. We admire your work tremendously.

Tom: We'll do anything we can to help, Sophie. And thank you for helping us.