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Outlook

Factual: Life Stories

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

Outlook: Al-Shabab, Vinyl, Nobel Prize Nominee

Cynthia Cheroitich, Zero Freitas, Victor Ochen

10/05/2015

Al-Shabab, Vinyl, Nobel Prize Nominee

BBC World Service - Outlook, Al-Shabab, Vinyl, Nobel Prize Nominee

Hiding From al-Shabab, Owning Five Million Vinyl,Uganda's First Nobel Peace Prize Nominee

Cynthia Cheroitich, who hid from gunmen for two days, Zero Freitas' five million record collection, Nobel Peace Prize nominee Victor Ochen on employing his brother's kidnapper

In the 1980s, Uganda was torn apart by civil war. Many internally displaced people ended up living in refugee - or IDP - camps.  Victor Ochen was born in the largest camp - Abia - which was home to 40,000 people. The camp was protected by only 20 soldiers, so Victor and his family were constantly at risk of being attacked or abducted by armed rebel groups like the Lord's Resistance Army. Many people who were abducted from the camp returned mutilated, with limbs missing or their lips and noses cut off. Victor wanted to help them. So, after completing his education, he started a charity called the African Youth Initiative Network which offers reconstructive surgery to victims of the war. He's just been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his work.

Zero Freitas bought his first record around fifty years ago. It was a collection of songs by the Brazilian superstar, Roberto Carlos. But it wouldn't be his last. Since then Zero has amassed what's thought to be the world's largest privately owned vinyl record collection - with over five million copies. As people around the world moved on to CDs and now Mp3s, Zero bought up their unwanted vinyl - sometimes in collections of hundreds of thousands. He pays for his records with money he earned from running his family's transport business in the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo. Outlook's Gibby Zobel went to visit Zero's warehouse.

19-year-old Kenyan student, Cynthia Cheroitich, has just survived a terrifying ordeal. She hid from gunmen for two days at Garissa University College, which was attacked nearly a month ago by militant Islamists from the group, al-Shabab. They singled out 148 students, and killed them.

Singer Mary Wilson is a founding member of The Supremes.  She tells Tim Allen about  the Motown hit factory, her public success and personal tragedy.

Cynthia Cheroitich. Credit: BBC
Zero Freitas. Credit: BBC
Victor Ochen. Credit: Heather McClintock

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