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Factual: Life Stories

True stories of ordinary people and the extraordinary events that have shaped their lives.

Outlook: 12/02/2010

12/02/2010

BBC World Service - Outlook, 12/02/2010

Chinese mothers; Revisiting Mandela Street; Solo down the Amazon.

The plight of China's girls
In the poorest parts of rural China hard manual labour is necessary for survival, which means there is still a preference for male children. Boys also automatically inherit more land. As a result many girls are given away, abandoned, aborted and, in the past, even killed at birth. Chinese author and broadcaster Xinran has decided to tell the untold and disturbing stories of the Chinese mothers who have lost their daughters.

Vilakazi street
Vilakazi Street in Soweto has a special place in the heart of many South Africans. It is the only street on earth which can boast two Nobel peace prize winners - both Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela once lived there and it is now trading on that fame as a bustling tourist attraction. To mark 20 years since Nelson Mandela's release from prison Outlook visits Vilakazi Street to see how things have changed.

Kayaking the Amazon
BBC children's presenter Helen Skelton is kayaking her way into the record books as she paddles her way down the Amazon river in an epic 2010 mile journey that started last month from the start of the geographic Amazon, near Nauta in Peru. Her journey is designed to raise money for the UK charity Sport Relief and will finish in Almerin in Brazil - where the river becomes tidal. Lucy Ash catches up with her as she takes a well-earned break on the river.

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