In Freedom Park, a squatter settlement in South Africa, a group of HIV-infected former sex-workers, created a network called Tapologo. They learn to be Home Based Carers for their community, transforming degradation into solidarity and squalor into hope. Catholic bishop Kevin Dowling participates in Tapologo, and raises doubts on the official doctrine of the Catholic Church regarding AIDS and sexuality in the African context. Tapologo tells a local story with global relevance. It’s an up-beat narrative, that moves from squalor and degradation to dignity and hope. HIV infected women are portrayed as protagonists of their own healing process, not as victims.

In Tapologo, the fight against AIDS unfolds as a community project mobilizing a network of retired nurses, social workers, doctors, religious leaders ostracized by the official church, alongside ex-sex workers and the patients themselves.

In sub-Saharan Africa the Catholic Church’s official doctrine on the use of condoms has had a huge negative impact. Aware of the problem, Bishop Kevin Dowling questions the Church’s official stance and is a co-founder of the Tapologo.

The directors have used a language that allowed them to follow the daily life of some of the women from the Tapologo network, and at the same time contextualize the situation of thousands of black women in South Africa.