Oscar-winning actress Meryl Streep is to narrate a documentary highlighting the efforts of Perthshire businesswoman and philanthropist Ann Gloag and her mission to improve maternal health in Africa.
Entitled Shout Gladi Gladi, the production will be released later in the year and documents the efforts of Stagecoach co-founder Ms Gloag and her Freedom From Fistula Foundation as they work with some of the world’s most destitute women.
The feature-length film the first documentary to be narrated by Streep focuses on women’s health in Africa with a particular emphasis on fistula, a common, debilitating condition which renders women and girls injured after childbirth.
Speaking about the documentary, Ms Streep, who has a host of top films to her credit including Sophie’s Choice, Kramer vs Kramer, Out of Africa and more recently, The Iron Lady, said: “This powerful film attests to the igniting power of one woman, Ann Gloag, to set in motion hundreds of helping hands, doctors, nurses, care givers, family and friends to resuscitate the health and status of victims of fistula, and to give them back their lives.”
Ms Gloag said: “We are truly honoured to have Meryl Streep support our film and our work. Her involvement will help shine a light on the ongoing, unnecessary suffering of millions of women and girls living with fistula today, as well as the enormous amount of work still needed to improve maternal healthcare across Africa.
“But the film is also about hope, as fistula can be cured in the majority of cases and can be prevented when good maternity care is available.
“Women and children need not die in childbirth and we all have the power to help.”
The film will also feature Melinda Gates and Wole Soyinka, the first African to be honoured with a Nobel prize.
The Freedom From Fistula Foundation works to eradicate fistula by improving access to good maternity care, as well as training doctors and midwives, and providing free medical care at their facilities in Sierra Leone, Kenya and Malawi.