Compassionate Rage, A

2002, 55 Minutes

Moira Kelly wants to give kids in need a chance - and she won’t let anything stand in her way.

A lot of people talk about what could be done to make the world a better place. Moira Kelly doesn’t just talk, she acts. She’s run an AIDS clinic for children in Romania, been house mother at an Aboriginal mission, worked in India with Mother Teresa, nursed crack babies in the Bronx, rescued kids from the firing lines in the brutal Balkans conflict and set up schools for the disadvantaged in Bosnia. She brings those in need of surgery from war zones to hospitals in the US, Canada, Ireland and Australia. Now she's creating a haven for young people on a farm outside Melbourne. She’s been called an angel of mercy and a pain in the neck, but one thing's for certain - she won’t let anything stand in her way.

Moira Kelly describes herself as a professional beggar. Disdaining the bureaucracy of aid organisations, she prefers to work as a sole agent, relying on her family and friends for help and hustling donations from charities and supporters. All you need, says Moira, is a "sense that there is no such thing in the world as ‘no’ and everything is possible". However, in her latest project, she's faced with working with a board of directors if her dream is to become a reality.

A Compassionate Rage follows this feisty Australian on her mercy missions across the globe. Over 18 months, we journey from Albania to the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne with a group of ill and injured children, who cannot gain access to crucial surgery in their own impoverished countries. Then it’s back to Albania to restore the kids to their families and arrange further assistance, from schooling and jobs to gifts of land and housing. And home again, to Australia, where Moira’s dream of a safe place for children recuperating from surgery is finally realised.

A Film Australia National Interest Program in association with Vue Pty Ltd. Developed with the assistance of the Australian Film Commission and Cinemedia's Film Victoria. Produced with the assistance of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. © 2011 National Film and Sound Archive of Australia.

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