Restoring Dignity: a journey with Noma Survivors. Film screening + Q&A with director and Mulikat, noma survivor
Free and open to all, but please book a ticket so we can keep track of numbers.
The BSMS Centre for Excellence in Global Health Research is delighted to invite you to celebrate World Neglected Tropical Diseases Day with us, through a very special screening of Restoring Dignity, a documentary following the journey of noma survivors across Nigeria. The screening will be followed by an in-person Q&A with Mulikat Okanlawon, President and co-founder of Elysium, the first noma survivors' association, whose personal story is featured in the film and who was nominated one of Time’s 100 most influential people in health in 2024; Claire Jeantet, filmmaker; and Dr Mark Sherlock, MSF Health Program Manager.
Noma, which was officially listed by the World Health Organisation as a neglected tropical disease in 2023, is a gangrenous infection starting in the mouth caused by extreme poverty, malnutrition and poor hygiene. In just two weeks, it destroys the tissues of the face and might kill up to 90 percent of the people affected. ‘Restoring Dignity’ offers a glimpse in survivors’ lives and follows their struggles and achievements over the course of a year.
In their directors letter about the making of the film, the filmmakers explain that “Noma causes terrible consequences in a very short space of time, but the healing and reconstruction processes can take many months and years. This is an injustice all survivors and their dear ones experience. This dramatic distortion of the time struck us as soon as we arrived at the Sokoto Noma Hospital. When you first see the face a noma survivor, it takes you some time to connect with the person. It’s not easy to perceive their mood or read a look. Rejected by their communities and sometimes by family members, they have sadly learnt to hide their injuries behind a scarf. As photographers and filmmakers, our objective with this documentary project was to capture what’s left of a disfigured human being. How dignity, and therefore beauty, can be preserved beyond a life-changing experience that affects the face, the very first means of connecting with others. In the documentary, survivors speak for themselves and each of the rare and precious words that they shared with the camera was a step forward for them to explain what they feel and for us to understand.”
Programme:
4pm – 4.10pm: Introduction by Dr Gem Aellah, Research Fellow with the Centre for Excellence in Global Health Research, BSMS.
4.10pm – 5pm: Film screening: Restoring Dignity: a journey with Noma Survivors, by filmmakers Claire Jeantet and Fabrice Catérini. Runtime - 52 minutes. Original languages - Hausa, Pidgin English, English
5pm – 6pm: Q and A with filmmaker Claire Jeantet; Mulikat Okanlawon, a noma survivor and advocate featured in the film, who was nominated one of Time’s 100 most influential people in health in 2024; and Dr Mark Sherlock – MSF Health Programmes Manager covering Nigeria.
Speaker bios
Mulikat Okanlawon. Born in Lagos, Nigeria, Mulikat Okanlawon is a dedicated noma advocate and a noma survivor raising awareness at the global level. In 2022, she co-founded Elysium, the first noma survivors organisation, alongside Fidel Strub. Residing in Sokoto, in the northwest of Nigeria, Mulikat works with Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors without borders (MSF), as a Health Promotion Officer. In 2024, she was nominated as one of Time’s 100 most influential people in health. Read more about Mulikat and her work on the Elysium website: About us — Elysium Noma Survivors Association
Claire Jeantet. Award-winning documentary filmmaker, Claire Jeantet is passionate about creating content with meaning and depth. She co-founded in 2008 the French production company Inediz along with Fabrice Catérini. Focused on long-term visual work, she captures the daily lives of resilient people transformed by a key moment. Believing in the power of stories to change the world, she collaborates with media, international organizations and NGOs. Her main field of interest is social issues, with a focus on refugees, women’s rights and access to health care.
Dr Mark Sherlock – Health Program Manager, MSF. Mark has worked as a medical doctor with MSF in a number of MSF's medical humanitarian responses. As health program manager, Mark’s work covers Nigeria, Iraq, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Malaysia. Since being a program manager covering Northwest Nigeria, Mark has been an advocate for noma to be recognised as a neglected tropical disease and for more funding, research and resources to be prioritised in efforts to respond to the disease.
Gem Aellah. Gem is a social anthropologist and Research Fellow with the BSMS Centre for Excellence in Global Health Research. Her work focuses on how global policy gets made – especially what makes people care - and how global health research and intervention is experienced in everyday life. She has an especial interest in using creative methods to communicate medial anthropology knowledge. You can watch a short video about her work here: "Global Health Policy: what’s love got to do with it?" - Dr Gem Aellah: Sussex Beacons Series. Gem is also chair of the UK Coalition Against NTDs influencing work group. https://x.com/Jachunya
Events
Precarity: Poetic and Aesthetic Explorations, a rolling series of Workshops in Autumn 2021 and Spring 2022, Details TBA
After Rights? Politics, Ethics, Aesthetics, a rolling series of Workshops in Autumn 2021 and Spring 2022, Details TBA
We are currently planning the Centre Research Meetings for early October and early December. If you are a member of the Centre at Sussex or a Centre affiliated colleague at another university interested in presenting work in progress on relevant themes, please get in touch with Prof Louiza Odysseos with a title and abstract.