The day I did my story in the Chureca, the Managua city dump, in February 2011, my life changed. At the time, I was working on a 25-minute radio documentary for Swiss Public Radio.  I was a reporter, who was struggling to find an answer to one basic question about my job: What impact do I have on the people I meet and do stories on? I had reported on many crises around the world, the last one being the earthquake in Haiti. I had come back from that country full of praise from others for my stories. The one piece that was talked about a lot, was about Haitians fighting in cemeteries to find a lone spot to quickly bury their loved ones. I remembered clearly the smell of death and the despair in people’s voices as they told their stories. And the question stayed had with me: what impact had I had on the people I had interviewed?This was the state of mind I was in, when I started working on my documentary. In the Chureca, I met a lot of incredible people but on this blog, you will read a lot about 3 of them: Dominga, Fabiola and Maryuri. Theses three young women are the main participants in BY MY SIDE. I should add Noel, Fabiola’s brother, an incredible 15 year-old teenager, whose will to get an education and to make it out of the Chureca really encouraged to finish the film.

I made BY MY SIDE for them. I want this film to have an impact on them. I want these voices to heard. Dominga, a 25 year-old woman with terminal Aids, has taught me courage. Despite everything that happened to her, she does not complain about it. Maryuri, a pregnant 19 year-old girl, and 11 year-old Fabiola have this in common with Dominga. Despite the fact that they live and work in a garbage dump, you won’t hear them complain about their life. You will hear them dream about leaving the Chureca, but complaining is simply not something they do. They are survivors.

BY MY SIDE is an independent documentary about them. In the next few weeks and months, you will find on this blog a lot of information about the making of this film, about its participants and about its team. Thank you for your interest and for your support.