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Director: Jane Kennedy

For 16 and a half years Vanessa Goosen, a former Miss South Africa semi-finalist, was incarcerated in Lard Yao maximum security women’s prison in Bangkok. She was 21 and pregnant when she was arrested and given a death sentence, later commuted to life, and finally a king’s pardon, for drug trafficking.

Vanessa was on her way back home to South Africa after visiting Thailand for a short work trip and was caught carrying 1.7kg of heroin contained within the covers of engineering books her boyfriend’s friend had asked her to bring home.

With no basic legal representation and her child taken away from her when she turned 3, what Leaps of Faith did Vanessa take to simply carry on?

Meet Vanessa today, aged 44 and back home in South Africa. An anti drugs campaigner, youth educator and speaker.

Her story of resilience and deep transformation after almost 2 decades in a Thai prison touches many lives, helping us reflect on the capacity of the human spirit and what it means to be truly free.

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Vanessa and daughter Felicia behind bars in prison Vanessa annual prison photo. Vanessa on the beach for the first time in 16 and a half years.
The prison authorities allowed inmates one picture a year. Here she is with Felicia Vanessa with her aunty Rushda who brought her up from the age of 11 Vanessa and daughter Felicia today

I AM WOMAN Leap of Faith is SABC3 television series produced by Plexus Films and Lisa Chait

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