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IRAQ / REFUGEE DISABILITIES
STORY: IRAQ / REFUGEE DISABILITIES
TRT: 03:00
SOURCE: UNHCR
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ARABIC / KURDISH / NATS
DATELINE: 22-23 MAY 2016, GAWILAN REFUGEE CAMP, DOHUK, IRAQ
1. Various shots, Belind training at UNFPA gym
2. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Belind, Syrian Kurdish Refugee:
"I don't want them to say that a person missing a leg or a hand cannot play sports."
3. Various shots, Belind weightlifting
4. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Belind, Syrian Kurdish Refugee:
“I defied my disability and the whole world to counter that.”
5. Close up, Belind doing push-ups
6. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Belind, Syrian Kurdish Refugee:
"There is nothing that I can't do.”
7. Med shot, Belind weightlifting
8. Various shots, Belind training young refugee on weightlifting
9. Various shots, Belind training refugee kids on breakdancing
10. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Belind, Syrian Kurdish Refugee:
“When I love something, I do it. In ping-pong you need to move but I play in a chair and I still win”
11. Various shots, Belind playing ping-pong with a refugee girl in the camp
12. Wide shot, camp
13. Various shots, Belind getting out of his house in the camp and on his wheelchair
14. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Belind, Syrian Kurdish Refugee:
"I was in a wheelchair. My brother pushed me all the way and when we had to go uphill, I would walk and climb myself until we reached Kurdistan."
15. Various shots, Belind leaving his house carried by his cousin
16. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Belind, Syrian Kurdish Refugee:
"Don't look at yourself as disabled. You need to have that defiance in you. Defy everyone. When someone looks at you they need to say, he is an example."
17. Various shots, Belind at stadium playing a football game with other refugees
Abdullah, also known as Belind, made the strenuous journey to Gawilan Camp in the Kurdish governorate in Iraq with his family in 2013 after fleeing their hometown in Qamishli. Despite being born without legs he braved the long road and steep hills to cross to relative safety.
About 7,500 refugees live in Gawilan. They are mostly Syrian Kurds who fled the fighting in northern Syria and sought refuge in Iraq.
So that Belind can gain access to the treatment he needs, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, is working on helping him gain resettlement.
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Belind, Syrian Kurdish Refugee:
"I don't want them to say that a person missing a leg or a hand cannot play sports. I defied my disability and the whole world to counter that.”
Growing up in Syria, sports became his world.
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Belind, Syrian Kurdish Refugee:
"There is nothing that I can't do. When I love something, I do it. In ping-pong you need to move but I play in a chair and I still win”
He even won the Syrian weightlifting championship in 2012. But when the war came, Belind had to flee to the Kurdish region of Iraq. This was not an easy journey.
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Belind, Syrian Kurdish Refugee:
"I was in a wheelchair. My brother pushed me all the way and when we had to go uphill, I would walk and climb myself until we reached Kurdistan."
Here in the camp where we he found refuge, getting around can be also difficult. But Belind refuses to be held back by anything.
He took on the role of teacher and now trains young refugees in a gym facility provided by the UN. He also gives them dancing lessons.
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Belind, Syrian Kurdish Refugee:
"Don't look at yourself as disabled. You need to have that defiance in you. Defy everyone. When someone looks at you they need to say, he is an example."
Belind’s determination is inspiring. His big dream is to go to the US for treatment, and then of course to play football.
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