This is a current doco...looking at healing through contact with nature(animals)
When little Prenessa Naicker was pronounced sick with bronchial pneumonia at the age of four, she was given little chance of survival.
The youngest child of Aarthie and Alvin Naicker, formerly of Merebank, Durban, Prenessa pulled through against all the odds, but suffered crippling trauma due to her illness.
Prenessa's remarkable story about an encounter with dolphins will be told in a documentary called, The Healing Power Of Nature.
The programme's focus is on how people find spiritual and physical ways to heal themselves through contact with nature.
The series is made by local directors and producers, Jane Kennedy and Karin Slater, with assistance from the World Conservation Union film unit.
The first part of this series documents Prenessa's story. The Naickers, who now live in Johannesburg, travel to Ponta D'Ouro in Mozambique with the hope of swimming with the dolphins.
Prenessa's first attempt is unsuccessful and the second attempt is foiled by nature itself, with a cyclone sweeping into the area.
Determination to swim with the dolphins sees Prenessa back for one last attempt.
According to her father, Alvin Naicker, the dolphins had a calming effect on Prenessa and she seemed to "love every minute with them".
After the experience with the dolphins, Alvin is happy with the results that the family has noticed.
"We have seen quite a difference in her attitude. She is much calmer and is less irritable.
"She also loves horse-riding and loves all animals."
Prenessa, now 11, is said to have become "more kind, loving and considerate".
While these changes may seem small, to the family they mean a bright and promising future for Prenessa.
In similar cases, the power of nature is said to have helped children with various ailments, physical or psychological.
Sufferers of attention deficit disorder have been helped by interaction with animals, and withdrawn children have been able to create bonds of friendship where before they were unable to.
