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Date: 9/20/2023
WEST SPRINGFIELD — A non-profit organization with a long history in West Springfield is the subject of a new documentary, and local residents have a chance to see it this month.
Titled “In the Name of the Son,” the film spotlights Billy’s Malawi Project, which provides medical care to people in Cape Maclear, Malawi, in southeastern Africa.
The nonprofit originates with founder Margaret Riordan’s son Billy, who died in 1999 of a brain hemorrhage on a lake in Cape Maclear. Riordan said she came to the village in 2000. While there, she discovered the community lacked access to health care.
“Coming from the Western world, that just seemed like an abomination,” she said.
In 2004, Riordan set up a medical clinic with one doctor, one nurse and 10 support staff. Nowadays, it has about 40 people employed. It has programs for malaria, HIV, and women’s health; an inpatient department; as well as services for epilepsy, diabetes, and hypertension. About 2,000 come to the clinic monthly for antiretroviral treatment. About 80 to 100 patients come into the outpatient department daily.
“Everything is notable,” she said. “We’re providing health care to a community that, if we weren’t here, would not have access to any healthcare. We’re looking out for people who now have a good health care service.”
The connection with West Springfield starts at the Big E. Riordan raised funds at the fair for years in the early 2000s. One year, a group from the Irish Cultural Center approached her with the idea of forming a 501c3 registered charity, resulting in the creation of Billy’s Malawi Project USA. Since then, Riordan has been coming to the United States once a year for interviews and fundraising.
West Springfield will also be the first of five stops this year where a documentary film about the project will be screened.
“In the Name of the Son” will be shown at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 26, at the Majestic Theater, 131 Elm St., West Springfield. The screening will be followed by a discussion with Riordan, filmmaker Mark McLoughlin, and Dr. Tendai Musa, who works at the clinic in Malawi. It is the first of five stops on a tour through the northeastern United States.
Tickets are $20 and may be purchased in advance by calling 413-747-7797 or visiting the Majestic box office, or they may be purchased at the door.
Riordan said that she had been approached by several different documentary makers over the years. She decided to work with McLoughlin, who knew of her from other media made about the clinic and lived in her hometown in Ireland. Filming took about a year and a half and took place in three countries.
Riordan said the film was difficult to make, but she was happy with the end product. Specifically, she liked that the subject wasn’t approached in a “sentimental, modern” way.
“It told the story, warts and all,” she said. “That was what I wanted.”
In an email, Riordan said she hoped audiences leave the film with an understanding of what life is like in underdeveloped places, like Sub-Saharan Africa. She also hopes audiences find a sense of courage.
“If there are people watching who are feeling that they cannot come to terms with a particular difficulty in their lives, I would hope that my story would somehow give them courage to come to terms with their difficulties,” she wrote.
Her and Billy’s story had previously been adapted as a book, “This Is Paradise,” by Pioneer Valley author Suzanne Strempek Shea, and as the one-woman play “Mags,” presented at the Majestic Theater with actor Cate Damon portraying her.
Riordan will be in West Springfield for the screening but won’t be sticking around for the Big E. The clinic, she said, has become too big and too busy for her to participate in the fair.
“It meant devoting 17 days to standing in the Big E,” she said. “I just felt my time could be better spent doing other things.”
Riordan also said the Billy’s Malawi booth used to be the only one at the fair selling African crafts. It would sell woodwork and jewelry made by craftspeople in Cape Maclear. Now, bigger and more sophisticated operations are selling them, too.
“It didn’t have the same level of sophistication as some of the other stuff which other vendors started to bring to the Big E,” she said. “I just realized we couldn’t really compete with them.”
After West Springfield, the film will be screened on Sept. 28 at Sacred Heart University in Connecticut; on Sept. 29 at the Irish Cultural Center in Canton, Massachusetts; on Oct. 4 at the New York Irish Center in Queens, New York; and on Oct. 5 at Southern New Hampshire University.
Riordan is from Dingle, County Kerry, Ireland, which has a sister city relationship with West Springfield, and West Springfield is the United States headquarters of the fundraising operation.
For more information on Billy’s Malawi Project, visit www.billysmalawiprojectusa.org. Donations can be mailed to P.O. Box 312, West Springfield, MA 01090.