TV documentary to focus on Aberdeenshire village that cares for its own

A COMMUNITY where people with learning disabilities and their carers live and work together is the subject of a TV documentary which will be aired next week.

Called The Village of Dreams, the programme focuses on Newton Dee, near Aberdeen, one of 100 Camphill Trust communities around the world.

The film follows the lives of villagers such as Steph, a skier in the special Olympics, and Ally, who moved to the village after the death of his mother.

One resident said the village was “like a dream come true.”

Residents and carers share everything and also do meaningful work in the bakery, café and farm which earns money for the community and attracts visitors.

Carers are not paid as they rely on the support of the community and choose to do their work not as a job but as a way of life.

The Camphill movement was created by Karl König, an Austrian paediatrician, who fled Germany during the Second World War with a group of Jewish students and settled in Scotland.

One of the oldest living members of Newton Dee, a woman named Erica, smuggled herself across the East German border to get here.

The Village of Dreams will air on Tuesday at 9pm on BBC2 Scotland.