[music] announccer: tododay, on " "21st century"... in south africa, living with big dreams and disability. and taking the nuclear option on cancer in argentina.

eddie: my dreams are huge. ththe kind of life thatat i seek to live is on an epic scale and really big. i think because i know that i'm dying. i know because i have a degenerativeve disability, and because i know the older i get, the weaker i bececome, i don't have e time to play small. [ntswaki speaking local language] eddie: i think that the vast majority of people with disabilities in south africa are incredibly disenfranchised, toto the point t of being invis. [ntswaki speaking local language]

eddie: love letter to myself. isn't it incredible you have outlived yourself? 20 years ago medical experts told your mother that due to spinal-muscular atrophy, you would not live past your fifth birthday. you feel guguilty because you have l left folks s behind. you have left minions of disabbled 20-somethings scattered throughout the global south behind. in some ways they are like you--young, black, profoundly disabled. but in many ways they are not like you. you live a life they cacan barely imamagine. unlike you, they a ae locked up in the back rooms of grim nursing homes, made to disappear from p public view, ad are negeglected and ill-treatedy society and the state. [indistincnct chatter]

[ntswaki speaking local language] [ntswaki continues speaking] eddie: ah, there we go. my name is edward d ndopu.

i go by eddie, though. and i am the head of amnesty international's youth engagement program for africa. my dreams are huge. the kind of life that i seek to live is on an epic scale and really big. and i think there's a reason for that. i think because i know that i'm dyingi know because i have a degenerative disability, and because i know the older i get, thehe weaker i become, therere's an urgen at t the back of my mind. and because of thaht urgency, i don't have titime to playay small. i insist on moving around because i donon't think we can really talk ababout freedom of movement if we don't accord that to people who have issues of mobility. we're like--we're a a mean team. woman: you u ow, you acclimate.

eddie: yeah. on n a deep level. woman: very deep level. eddie: yeah. beautiful my beeie. mymy work is mainly with young people, finding out what young people's perspectives are in human rights, abuses, and violations throughout africa. i think that the e vast majority of people with disabilities in south africa are incredibly disenfranchiseded, to the pointf being invisible. people with disabilities disappear into the background. we don't see them. we don't hear from them. there's already overwhelming poverty and overwhelming i inequality and unemployment in southth africa r your non-disabled person, but for disabled south africans, it's compounded by the anti-disability society in which we live. which is n not just a southth afran problem, , but i

would argueue a global prproble. [indistinct conversation] [ntswaki speaking local language]] [laughter, i indistinct chatter] [ntswaki speaking local language] jean: ntswawaki was one of the foununding members of a seself-p group for caregivers of children wiwith disabililities, so ntswai attended with her mother.

my name is jean elphick. i work for afrfrika tikkunun, and i rue empowermrment program within afrika a tikkun. afrika tikkun is quite a big south africican ngo, and we're really focused on children. [chhildren singing in locall language] woman: d do you feel lononely or empty, , but do y you have e soe support [ [indistinct]? ntswaki: i i have lots of helelp from my family,y,rom my aunt and my c cousin. womanan: do you feel hahamed of your disability,rr you aree not ashhamedf it? ntswaki: no, i'm proud of it. eddie: i get that everybody--

we're all in the process of dying. but for me it fefeels moe real andnd evident because my by communicates with me every day. tino: 1, 2, and 2. eddie: i feel weaker. i have shortness of breath sometimes. and that's why, with the energy that i have, i want to use it in the best way i possibly can. that was so good, yes. that was so good. i am handsosome becauause of my crooked hands and mymy crooked back. schools rejected you time and time again. it was said that you would never cut it in the formal education system. in my mind,d, i reject the hells of incncapacitation for a worlrf bounundless mobibility. i ignore those....

so when i was 16 years old, my mom came e home one afternoon ad she brought witith her a magazi, and snap bang g in the middle was a feature on thisis new school, the afafrican leadership academy. i expererience... the p poem was part of ththe grd opening of the academy. i am free. in my mind, the possibililies are endless. [cheering and applaususe] coach: go! jean: south africa is really heralded as having a fantastic legislation of a really strong constitution which really pushes human rights. unfortunately,

however, more than two decades on, there's been a real lag inin implementation of f these fantastic policies. no one really knows exactly how many children with disabilities are not going tto school on the grouounds of having a disababil, but our state estimates are almost 600,000 children. [children singing in local language] jean: and finally, there is huge problems with accessing justice. and in south africa we have a

big problem with genderer-based violence. people with disabilities are far more vulnerable and likely to experience abuse. [ntswaki speaking local language] jean: when we realized that ntswaki had reported the case and it didn't appear that anything had happened, we

referred ntswaki to a public interest attorney. whilst this was all going on, the family off the perpetrator w was trying vey hard to bribe ntswaki's family to drop the charges. they offered a washing machine in retuturn for dropping the chara. a plea bargain was offered to the perpetrator, who agreed to plead guilty to the charge of sexual assault, and he was given a 5-year suspendeded sentence, which means that he went home and he didn't serve any jail time. [ntswaki speaking g local language]

[indistincnct chatter] eddie: i live h here with my y m and my brother when he's not at university. it's home. mother: ok. [laughingng] i'm getting sweaty. eddie: yes. mother: when i see that, , i hae emotions. let's see if i can find something. oh, did you see-- eddie: mm-mmm. uuh-uh. this is not w working for me. tino: o oh, my god, yes. eddie: oh, my god, i've always been a diva. my god. look at myself. look at the teeth.

mother: i need a tissue. [laughing] ahh... we have cocome a long way here. eddie: mm-hmm. yeah. we have. so we know how to make buildings accessible, but people with disabilities also need access to things that--that are sosomewhat n not very tangible. like love and intntimacy and jo. [indistininct chatter] sex x is a human activity that everybody--most people engagage in. it's a riright. it's a human right.. howowre you? wowoman: you're the lifife of te partrty.

eddie: yeyeah, yeah. mmm... i'm gay, too. i'm queer, and so it's difficucult. it's hahard. but i think that therere ways ththat we can fulfill that for p people with disabilities. [music] simphiwe dana is a very good friend of mine and somebody who i adore. you look absolutely amazing. hello. her music is incredibly soulful. she's got lots of pololically consnscious stuff that she puts out there. and so she was an amnesty internatonal ambassador. so we met to catch up,p, one, asas friends, but alo toto discuss future collaborati. if you wouldn't mind writing a

song, um, you know, anand--and-- and really being--and i mean, the thing is to get something that is--that's got a human rights messaging,g, but even beyond tthat, somethingng that s also up tempo a as well that... in a nice way, i ambush people and get them to do projects. that's how i get them to commit. [musicic] jean: inspired by our negatative experience of suppororting ntswi through the investigation and the court process, we really redoubled our efforts to look at empowering young people with disabilities to prevevent abusen the first place. boy: the penis. [clapping] jean: what we are experimenting with and what we are really

giving a try is rolling out a peer education sexuality, life skills, and hiv coururse. [ntntswaki speaking local language] jean: she is an exextremely resilient person, and she really is a valuable member of our self-help group. she adds so much of her character and her humor to o our group, and at tis her sarcasm. [laughs] she is a very lively and extremely positive person. [indistinct conversation] eddie: tino is my rock. i don't think i can do what i'm doing without him.

he's the person i spend the most time with out of anybody in my life. and he keeps me together. [indistinct conversation] if we e look at society, it is made to help able-bobodied peoe. everything about the built environment is structured because somebody assumes a certain body, and this body standnds and walks and sees andd hears. this is why i say that inindependence d doesn't t exist does exist is interdependence. we all need each other to survive. we all do. [indistinct conversation] [ntswaki speaeaking local langnguage]

[chihildren chattering and laugughing] ntswaki: ahh...ahh...ahh... [speaking local language] eddie: i want to leave the planetet in a blaze ofof glory. i wawant to go out like a fifirework. my body may have deteriorated over the years and may have decayed, but my spirit is everlasting and will continue to reveverberate long after i've left the earth.

[carlo speaking spanish] narrator: more than 12 million people globally are diagnosed with cancer each year. bubut whatat used to be a death sentence now needn't be. in argentina, cutting-edge technology offers hope to sufferers.

narrator: every year, more than 12 million people around the world receive bad news. they've contracted some form of cancer, one of the leading causes of death in the 21st century. in 2010, carlos perez was diagnosed with throat cancer. it all began when carlos felt something was wrong with his voice.

narrator: the news was devastating, especially for his yououngest daughter melodie. narrator: but thanks to new techchnologies, the disease e ws not a death sentence. [carlos speaking spanish]

narrator: over the last decade, people throughout latin america and the caribbean have had access to cutting-edge technologies. these advances are part of a global effort by the international atomic energy agency to put nuclear medicine centeter stage in t the fight agaainst cancecer.

narrator: it's a system which detects w whether a any nodulesr lumps are cancerous, so that the right treatment can be given without delay. experts say that over the next two decades, cancer rates will jump by 70% worldwide. currently, some 8 million people die each year from the disease. but the increased use of technologies like nuclear medicine offers a glimmer of hope for sufferers and their families around the woworld. [melodie speaking spanish]

nartor: comining up on a ture edition of "21st century"...