This project shows how West African campaigners and doctors are determined to shatter taboos around infertility, offering women opportunities for treatment and support.

Thousands of women in sub-Saharan Africa are affected by the pain and sadness of infertility, yet it is still perceived to be a uniquely ‘Western’ problem. Angels is an independent multi-media documentary project set in Dakar, Senegal, documenting how West African women and doctors are determined to shatter taboos around the subject of infertility, offering women opportunities for treatment and support.

Unlike news stories viewing African issues through a clichéd lens of conflict and poverty, this story shows that it doesn’t matter where you live, or how much money you have, infertility can affect anyone, anywhere. Angels is a story of modern Africa, where modern women, often with successful careers, are putting off having children until later in life, and where traditional beliefs are increasingly colliding with contemporary life issues and medical advances led by pioneering women.

Via Angels, we hope to enable Senegalese women to start a conversation about infertility, break the silence, and find solace in hearing other women’s stories. Infertility brings great loneliness. In offering Senegalese women an opportunity to talk and share their stories with women around the world, we hope in turn to help them address their trauma, combat taboos, find opportunities for knowledge and treatment, and above all, know that they are not alone.

The documentary is called Angels because UK women who suffer a miscarriage, or lose their babies during pregnancy, call their lost babies, ‘angel babies’. In parts of Senegal, women suffering from infertility are said to be affected by les anges.

The Angels documentary project will include two short video documentaries, as well as essays, features, photography and audio work for print, web and broadcast media. We will also aim to create a Facebook page, where women can come to confidentially find others with infertility issues.