Past Programs
Grief - 2008
The Final My Street Sampler
07/12/2008
The My Street project asked people to create a story about their street, using any available digital technology and then to upload it to the Pool website. Browsing through the stories you get a strong sense of place and the emotions that we feel about our neighbourhood and immediate surroundings.
In this final showcase of stories you will hear stories about the following:
a beautiful description of Life in a Pilbara Town,
a sad tale about a man who lost his eye in a work accident but still manages to play the violin as he awaits surgery for a glass eye,
a death in The Ukraine,
a charming story about a clash of rednecks and drug users in a country town,
a sharehouse progressive dinner,
first time sex in the red light district of Singapore and
a reflection on four generations who have lived in the same house.
Losing Erin - Part Two
12/10/2008
Erin Berg's family panic when they discover she's skipped out on the clinic where she's being treated for post-natal depression. And then comes the call -- she's been found in a coma in a public hospital in Tijuana, Mexico.
Her family cannot understand why Erin has gone to Mexico but it eventually becomes clear that during her illness Erin become fixated on the ideas of voluntary euthanasia campaigner Dr Philip Nitschke, who campaigns for the availability of a 'peaceful pill' for terminally ill people who choose to end their lives.
In the absence of such a pill, Dr Nitschke suggests the next best thing is Nembutal, a veterinary drug available only to vets in Australia for euthanasing animals but readily available over the counter in Mexican pet stores.
Part two of Losing Erin takes us into the streets and hospitals of Tijuana, as Erin's sisters continue to try and save her.
Losing Erin - Part One
05/10/2008
When Perth mother Erin Berg sinks into the black hole of post natal depression, her sisters battle her and the mental health system to stop her falling through the cracks.
Erin Berg was a happy, funloving, bohemian mother of four with a passion for her children, an organic lifestyle, Tom Cruise and bands The Foo Fighters and the Hilltop Hoods. But in the months after the birth of her last child her world starts falling apart. Her relationship is over, she has to move house and she sinks into a deep depression.
Erin is from a loving and close-knit family. Her three sisters are social workers and they all recognise the signs of post natal depression -- a condition suffered by almost one in six Australian women after giving birth. They push for Erin to get help but she's not interested.
Losing Erin is the story of a mother watching her world slip through her fingers and a family struggling to keep their mother, sister and daughter from slipping through the cracks of the mental health system.
Always on my mind
27/07/2008
No-one knows why a significant number of service men and women develop post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of their experiences of conflict, and others do not. But for these veterans of the Gulf War and East Timor, the impact on their lives has been profound.
The onset of symptoms often means the end of their military career, and their ability to adapt to other employment is limited. Some days, motivation returns -- and on others they can barely get out of bed in the morning. They feel isolated and worthless, and it affects every aspect of their lives. Some turn to alcohol to blur the memories, but it doesn't fix the problem. Relationships are a likely casualty; post-traumatic stress disorder wreaks havoc on families and loved ones, and for the young partner of a soldier who served in Afghanistan, the consequences were devastating.
Life Beyond Death
06/07/2008
In a remarkable gesture of peace and humanity Palestinian and Israeli families talk about the decision to donate the organs of their dead family members to patients on the other side of the Middle Eastern conflict.
'My son was dead, but six Israelis now have a part of a Palestinian in them, and maybe he is still alive in them.'
The words of the Palestinian father Ismail Khatib, who donated his son Ahmed's organs to Israelis after the 12-year-old, while holding a toy gun, was shot dead by Israeli soldiers.
This is not the first time victims of the conflict have given life to people on the other side of the Arab-Jewish divide.
This year is the 5th anniversary of the death of Yoni Jesner, a 19-year-old Jewish religion student murdered in the bombing of a Tel-Aviv bus. Part of his body went to save the life of a Palestinian girl from East Jerusalem.
In this moving program we take a closer look at the generosity and faith of these two families, the Jesners and the Khatibs. Can a person live on in some way through organ donation?
This is a production of the BBC World Service and is part of the Crossing Boundaries program exchange.
The Sycamore Tree
13/01/2008
Fiona was randomly and violently sexually assaulted at the age of seven; Helen was sexually abused by her father, and later her stepfather, from the age of three. Both are sick and tired of sleepless nights and living in fear, so have turned to the Sycamore Tree Project in an attempt to move on.
The Sycamore Tree Project is a faith based, restorative justice program where victims visit unrelated offenders in prison over a period of months to discuss crime and its ongoing effect on victims. Victims are given a platform to describe their pain, fear and loss. Offenders are encouraged to share their stories, to accept responsibility for their crime and to consider ways in which they might make restitution to their particular victims.
