The Conversation

Two HIV positive women from Kenya and Italy talk to Kim Chakanetsa about how they overcame stigma to live well with the disease. Doreen Moraa Moracha was born to a HIV discordant couple (positive mother, negative father) and is the only one of her siblings that has the virus. As a young woman she found her status very hard to deal with, and spent some time off her anti-retrovirals. Now 27 and back on her life-saving medication, she has undetectable levels of the disease. Doreen wants to spread the message that HIV is not a death sentence, saying 'I'm just a fabulous host to a tiny virus.' Silvia Petretti is the CEO of Positively UK, which supports and celebrates people living with HIV. Originally from Rome, when Silvia got her own diagnosis more than 20 years ago, she felt broken and tainted. 'Internalised stigma crushed me and was reinforced by the stigma and ignorance in main stream society. But through meeting others living with HIV and becoming an activist I found a form of therapy and healing. I now believe and feel that I am whole and strong and worthy of love and respect, regardless of any circumstance.'Image L: Silvia Petretti (credit: Mareike Guensche) R: Doreen Moraa Moracha (credit: Michael Kaloki/BBC)

While therapy was once considered the reserve of the rich, it's now part of many people's lives as they deal with trauma, relationship breakdown, and behavioural problems. But it remains relatively exclusive and incredibly private. Kim Chakanetsa is joined by Susie Orbach and Esther Perel, who are both trying to demystify the process without compromising confidentiality.Susie Orbach is a British psychotherapist and writer. Her first book, Fat is a Feminist issue was a ground breaking global bestseller that looked at the psychology of dieting and over-eating in women. She co-founded the Women’s Therapy room which helps vulnerable women through mental health crises. Her radio and podcast series In Therapy is a dramatised re-imagining of her conversations with patients. Esther Perel is a Belgian psychotherapist who is credited with changing the way we think and talk about relationships through her books, podcasts and talks. She is host of the highly successful podcast, Where Should We Begin?, which takes listeners inside the therapy room with anonymous couples as clients.(Image: Esther Perel (L) Credit: Ernesto Urdaneta. (R) Susie Orbach. Credit: Andrew Crowley)

What's it like to provide aid in a war torn country? Two women who work in conflict zones talk to Kim Chakanetsa about what they feel are the most effective ways to make an impact.Irish nurse Avril Patterson has spent the past decade working in emergency situations, from Liberia to Afghanistan to Syria, where she spent four years. In 2018 she moved to Yemen to head the International Committee of the Red Cross’s health programme there. She says as a woman there are instances where she has access where men do not.Rola Hallam is a British-Syrian doctor and founder of CanDo, a social enterprise that allows local humanitarians the opportunity to provide healthcare to countries in need. Working with various Syrian-led NGOs, she played an integral part in building seven hospitals in Syria including the first ever crowdfunded hospital.Image L: Rola Hallam (credit TED/Bret Hartman) R: Avril Patterson (credit ICRC/Pawel Krzysiek)

How to turn a healthcare vision into reality - Yassmin Abdel-Magied speaks to two entrepreneurs from Vietnam and Nigeria who spotted an issue in medical care in developing countries and set about trying to solve it.Nga Tuyet Trang is a Vietnamese entrepreneur who discovered that newborn babies in Vietnam were dying of treatable conditions because of broken medical equipment. At the age of just 25, she founded a company to provide simple, cost-effective devices to maternity units, called the Medical Technology and Transfer Service (MTTS). Through her leadership, the social enterprise has delivered thousands of machines to hospitals around the world, and treated more than a million babies.Temie Giwa-Tubosun is a Nigerian-American health manager and founder of LifeBank, a business working to improve access to blood transfusions in Nigeria. Her aim is to end the shortage of blood supplies by increasing the efficiency of distribution and by educating people about the importance of blood donation. The idea came about after the birth of her first child, when she found out that many women in developing countries die in childbirth as a result of postpartum haemorrhage. In 2014, Temie was named one of the BBC’s 100 Women.L: Temie Giwa-Tubosun (Credit: LifeBank) R: Nga Trang Tuyet (Credit: MTTS)

Mountain climbing is a notoriously high-risk, high-reward activity. Yassmin Abdel-Magied asks two pioneering female climbers who've scaled the world's highest peaks, if the danger and death toll affect women's participation.Masha Gordon is a Russian explorer who has broken the speed records for the Seven Summits Challenge (climbing the highest peak on each continent) and the Explorer's Grand Slam (the Seven Summits plus reaching the North and South Poles). Masha had a highly successful career in finance and only started climbing in her mid-30s whilst on maternity leave. She is the founder of Grit & Rock, a UK charity which gives teenage girls from deprived backgrounds the opportunity to complete a year-long mountaineering programme.Samina Baig is the first Pakistani woman to summit Mt Everest, and to complete all Seven Summits. She grew up in a one-room house in her mountain village, where she would often see groups of foreigners coming to climb the surrounding peaks but she never saw any Pakistani women among them. In 2010, aged 19, she decided to change all that and soon had a mountain named after her.Image L: Samina Baig - credit Mirza Ali R: Masha Gordon - credit Eric Larsen

Easing the fear of the dentist's chair - getting teeth fixed can be a traumatic experience for vulnerable patients. Kim Chakanetsa meets two women who use innovative methods to restore smiles.Dr Sharonne Zaks is not your average dentist. In her practice in Melbourne, Australia, she specalises in treating highly anxious patients, many of whom are survivors of sexual assault and trauma. These patients often experience a loss of control when lying back in the dentist's chair. Sharonne aims to open up communication with each patient, and to remove the shame they may feel about the state of their teeth. Sometimes she even uses music and massage to help patients feel more at ease.Dr Sonia Sonia is an Indian dentist who has dedicated her career to supporting survivors of domestic violence. Based in Brisbane, Australia, Sonia is herself a survivor of domestic abuse, and when she started practising dentistry she recognised the signs of abuse in her patients. Over time, she has helped women escape abusive relationships, and given then confidence to live their own lives. Sonia says her biggest reward is putting the smile back on someone's face.(Photo: L: Sharonne Zaks. Credit: Sharonne Zaks; (R) Sonia Sonia. Credit: Roshan Vas_Angel Photography)

Why are so many women not in work? Kim Chakanetsa brings together women from Jordan and South Africa - countries with two of the highest female unemployment rates in the world - to discuss the barriers women face getting into the workplace and how they could be overcome.Ghadeer Khuffash says that in Jordan, most women graduate not expecting to go into work. It's not just because jobs are scarce, it's also because they and their families aren't comfortable with them being in mixed sex workplaces. Ghadeer aims to provide more economic opportunities for women through her work with the nonprofit Education for Employment. In South Africa, in the midst of a jobs crisis, female unemployment is even higher than male. Pearl Pillay says that on top of the economic barriers, women are also overlooked, exploited and harassed in their attempts to find work. Pearl runs Youth Lab, a think tank that aims to give young South Africans a say in the policies that affect them, and she believes the whole conversation about jobs should be refocused on aspirations and fair wages.Image: L: Pearl Pillay (credit Drew Precious) R: Ghadeer Khuffash (credit EFE)

Migrant cooks serving up stories of home - Kim Chakanetsa meets two remarkable women who have used cooking to forge independent careers and to open up conversations about culture.Asma Khan is an Indian-born British chef whose popular London restaurant, Darjeeling Express, is entirely staffed by women. Asma herself only learnt to cook after she married in her early 20s and moved to the UK with her husband. She later started a supper club in her home, behind her family’s back, to support migrant women living in her area. Asma features on the acclaimed Netflix series, Chef’s Table. Her signature dish is biryani.Rose Dakuo came to the UK from Ivory Coast as a refugee aged 17. She later became homeless with four young children, after separating from her partner. But through that experience, Rose found her voice, and she has since dedicated her life to sharing West African food with others in her community, particularly those in need. She is now a regular chef at the ‘Welcome Kitchen,’ a collective of refugee chefs who cook at supper clubs and events across London. Rose specialises in food from across West Africa. Her favourite is Cheb Jen, a Senegalese rice dish.

What's life like for women in hip hop? Nelufar Hedayat brings together two outspoken female hip hop artists from Guatemala and Yemen, who aim to change attitudes with their songs.Rebeca Lane is a feminist hip hop star in Central America. She embraced hip hop as a form of protest music, and raps about issues that affect women such as domestic violence and femicide. She co-founded Somos Guerreras, an all-female rap collective that tours Europe and the Americas and holds workshops for women. Although famous outside her country she keeps a lower profile when in Guatemala, as she says being an activist there can be dangerous.Amani Yahya is a Yemeni musician who grew up in Saudi Arabia, returning to Yemen for high school. She became part of a thriving cultural scene there, performing her own brand of hip hop ballad to rapt audiences. However she also received threats from religious conservatives. When war broke out in 2014 she escaped back to Saudi Arabia only to face a backlash there too. Now based in the US, she is passionate about getting social messages across in her songs, including against child marriage.Image: L: Rebeca Lane (credit Belen Marco) R: Amani Yahya (credit Fredrik Gille)

What does good care look like? Kim Chakanetsa talks to two women who have dedicated their lives to looking after and advocating for people with dementia in different parts of the world.Morejoy Saineti is a specialist dementia care nurse originally from Zimbabwe, now living in London. She has won numerous awards for her work after she pioneered a community palliative care service for people with dementia in the UK. After her own mother developed the condition, Morejoy also founded Africa Dementia Service to raise awareness of dementia in southern Africa. She has also partnered with Alzheimer's Society UK to tackle stigma in Zimbabwe as part of their Global Dementia Friends Network.Rabiab Nantarak works at a care facility in a village near Chiang Mai in Thailand, looking after western patients who have been diagnosed with dementia. Rabiab is a trained nursing assistant and has worked in this role for five years, having previously worked in the tourism industry. She believes that the most important skills for any caregiver are patience and the ability to give people space. The care home where Rabiab works is featured in a new documentary by Kristof Bilsen, Mother, which gives a moving portrait of the lives of the carers and their patients.L: Rabiab Nantarak (credit: Rabiab Nantarak) R: Morejoy Saineti (credit: Morejoy Saineti)