People Like Maria
- Program
- People Like Maria
- Producing Organization
- Columbia University. Press. Center for Mass Communication
- AAPB ID
- cpb-aacip/516-vm42r3q40c
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- Description
- Program Description
- Half hour program originally recorded on film.
- Program Description
- This program consists of two stories which illustrate the work of the World Health Organization (WHO) in two of its eighty-eight member nations. Harry Watt is the writer-director and take us into Bolivia and Burma for on location films. The program was produced by the Center for Mass Communication through WHO. The title is take from the first episode, in which a young WHO trainee, Maria by name, arrives in Bolivia to work among the Andean Indians. In this remote country of South America, Maria finds she must deal with mistrust, suspicion and even hate. When she starts a baby clinic, only two women show up for instruction. However, when she delivers the first child of a young Indian couple, Maria is invited, finally, to examine the children in some of the other families and finds that she has finally gained acceptance. In the second story, viewers are transported to Burma, where after the War the government of the Union of Burma set up a school for health assistants. The trainees receive two and one-half years of schooling, a streamlined course in the fundamentals of medicine. Aung Tan, 20 years old, is one of the assistants who is graduated from the school. He arrives in his assigned village and informs the populace that he is there not just to fight illness, but to teach them how to keep well. Feeling mighty sure of himself, Aung Tan proceeds to tell village head men what to do, etc. however, one day he comes up against a rather unusual situation. A whole village has been deserted in panic. Only an elderly man is able to help Aung Tan solve this mystery. Discovery of the source of panic leads Aung Tan to race for help and save many persons from the greatly-feared plague. In conclusion, viewers learn WHO now is studying the problem of polio, mental health and premature birth. For the first time in history, says the narrator, health is being recognized as a human right. (Description adapted from documents in the NET Microfiche)
- Broadcast Date
- 1959-02-22
- Asset type
- Program
- Topics
- Health
- Media type
- other
- Credits
-
-
Director: Watt, Harry, 1906-1987
Producing Organization: Columbia University. Press. Center for Mass Communication
Writer: Watt, Harry, 1906-1987
- AAPB Contributor Holdings
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- Citations
- Chicago: “People Like Maria,” 1959-02-22, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed July 17, 2025, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-516-vm42r3q40c.
- MLA: “People Like Maria.” 1959-02-22. American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. July 17, 2025. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-516-vm42r3q40c>.
- APA: People Like Maria. Boston, MA: American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-516-vm42r3q40c