IRAQ / DOHUK WINTER

Efforts are now under way in Syria, Iraq and neighbouring countries to prepare refugees and the internally displaced for winter. But 1 million uprooted people in the region won’t be getting help because of a $58.45 million shortfall in funding for winter programmes. UNHCR

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:02:28
• Production Date: 11 November 2014
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES - UNHCR
• Subject Topical: REFUGEES; DISPLACED PERSONS
• Geographic Subject: IRAQ
• MAMS Id: 1239248

Description

STORY: IRAQ / DOHUK WINTER
TRT: 2.28
SOURCE: UNHCR
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / KURDISH / NATS

DATELINE: 8-9 NOVEMBER 2015, ZOZAN CAMP, NORTHERN IRAQ

Shotlist

1. Med shot, Dhakeel unfurling plastic tarp
2. Med shot, boy helping with plastic tarp
3. Close up, plastic tarp going over camera lens
4. Wide shot, plastic tarp over shelter
5. Wide shot, Dhakeel behind shelter
6. Wide shot, shelter, sun in distance
7. SOUNDBITE (Kurdish) Dakheel Omar Iliyas, Displaced:
“As you can see, I made this shelter out of scrap wood, cardboard and scraps of plastic that I collected from different places I covered it with plastic sheeting that I bought for sixty-thousand Iraqi Dinars.This is how I prepared my family for the cold. I heard that we will be given carpets but so far we have not seen them. The things we need the most are kerosene, warm clothes and carpet.”
8. Various shots, shelter
9. SOUNDBITE (Kurdish) Dakheel Omar Iliyas, Displaced:
“We have to prepare ourselves and build better shelters. And also that you can see, I am wearing a short sleeve shirt. Is this going to keep me warm over the winter? Impossible! We do not have money to by winter supplies. It will be good if you can bring us money and clothes, otherwise we have no options or solutions to survive the cold.”
10. Wide shot, new camp being built
11. Close up, shovel in dirt
12. Wide shot, workers with shovels
13. Wide shot, new camp structure
14. Wide shot, concrete base in new camp
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Sophia Glazunova, UNHCR Dohuk:
“For the financial assistance, it is quite serious. It is more than 2 million dollars, and all together we are planning to cover more than four thousand families with cash assistance as well.”
16. Wide shot, Zozan camp at sunset
17. Med shot, girls with sunset behind them
18. Wide shot, people around fire
19. Pan right, everyone in the tent
20. SOUNDBITE (Kurdish) Koche Ismail, Displaced:
“The children don’t have clothes, they have no shoes. We have nothing. We just don’t have anything.”
21. Med shot, kids in tent
22. Various shots, girls and boys in tent
23. Wide shot, entrance to a tent
24. Wide shot, Zozan camp at night

Storyline

Dakheel and his sons fight the fading light to finish their new shelter. They have fled enemies, and now must face another one – winter. All seven family members must make it through the cold in this simple shelter.

This plastic sheeting cost them the last of their money. They had no choice. The tents they live in now leak in the rain, and the ground around becomes a sea of mud. Inside the kerosene heaters have arrived, but the kerosene is still to come.

Efforts are now under way in Syria, Iraq and neighbouring countries to prepare refugees and the internally displaced for winter. But 1 million uprooted people in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere in the region won’t be getting help because of a $58.45 million shortfall in funding for winter programmes.

SOUNDBITE (Kurdish) Dakheel Omar Iliyas, Displaced:
“As you can see, I made this shelter out of scrap wood, cardboard and scraps of plastic that I collected from different places I covered it with plastic sheeting that I bought for sixty-thousand Iraqi Dinars.”

The shortfall means UNHCR has had to make some very tough choices in prioritizing the most vulnerable of the vulnerable. Determining who takes priority can be based on a number of factors, including the elevation of refugee settlements; the composition of the family unit (e.g. number of children and female-headed households); family health concerns; new arrivals; available family resources; shelter conditions and other considerations.

SOUNDBITE (Kurdish) Dakheel Omar Iliyas, Displaced:
“This is how I prepared my family for the cold. I heard that we will be given carpets but so far we have not seen them. The things we need the most are kerosene, warm clothes and carpet.”

UNHCR is funding the new Bersive camp in Zhako. Work will soon be finished. But the camp will only house 1,800 families.

Approximately 800,000, in Iraq need some kind of help with shelter.

That means more than roofs, kerosene and warm clothes. It means money to meets locals needs.

SOUNDBITE (English) Sophia Glazunova, UNHCR Dohuk:
“For the financial assistance, it is quite serious. It is more than 2 million dollars, and all together we are planning to cover more than four thousand families with cash assistance as well.”

Night drains the heat of the day and brings the cold. Cooking fires are also heating fires, but the heat is limited and doesn’t last.

In Koche Ismail’s tent live 26 people, sons, daughters, grandchildren. Yazidis who fled last summer. They huddle together to keep warm. Their husbands and fathers are absent, still on Mount Sinjar.

SOUNDBITE (Kurdish) Koche Ismail, Refugee:
“The children don’t have clothes, they have no shoes. We have nothing. We just don’t have anything.”

Throughout the region, the needs are great and growing. The winters in Northern Iraq are cold and harsh.

More worrisome, is the funding shortfall that has left humanitarian agencies facing difficult choices about how to provide assistance to everyone here.