Little Heaven

Filmmaker Lieven Corthouts in person at all three screenings!

Lydia is at a turning point in her life. We experience life through Lydia’s expressive face and reflective diary entries, her daily routines at the Little Heaven orphanage for children living with HIV, her conversations with other children there, her doctors’ appointments, and her exercise, study, and prayer. Despite being abandoned by their families or left alone when their parents died, the children form a new family, together with their caretakers. Their HIV status is always in the background, but small victories show us a life that is full of hope, not despair.

“HIV is like somebody living in my body without paying rent. I don’t know him and I don’t like him.”—Lydia, 13, Little Heaven Orphanage, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Human Rights Watch has documented a wide range of human rights abuses linked to HIV and AIDS, fuelling HIV risk and impeding access to information and services to prevent, treat, and mitigate the impact of HIV and AIDS. Recent reports have addressed physical abuse and denial of care to prisoners living with HIV in Uganda and Zambia, barriers to HIV services in the southern United States, and denial of palliative care for adults and children living with HIV in Ukraine, India, and Kenya.