Unifeed
KENYA / REFUGEE OLYMPIC TEAM
STORY: KENYA / REFUGEE OLYMPIC TEAM
TRT: 3:14
SOURCE: UNHCR
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT UNHCR
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 25 JULY 2016, NAIROBI, KENYA
25 JULY 2016, NAIROBI, KENYA
1. Various shots, Refugee athletes jogging on dirt road
2. Tracking, athletes’ shoes
3. Med shot, athletes running
4. SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Paulo Lokoro, South Sudanese refugee Olympic athlete, 1500m:
“I am very prepared. Now if we go there, we are going to meet with so many people. It’s not me alone going to be running, so we are going to meet the world.”
5. Wide shot, athletes running over a bridge
6. Tracking, athletes’ legs as they run.
7. Wide shot, athletes running through a forest
8. SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Anjaline Nadai, South Sudanese refugee Olympic athlete, 1500m:
“I will be hoping at least to meet my fellow refugees and the rest of the sports people and maybe to see the country.”
9. Tracking, James Chiengjiek running with his colleagues
10. Wide shot, athletes running through forest
11. SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) James Chiengjiek, South Sudanese refugee Olympic athlete, 400m:
“It makes them happy that I get this chance and they just give me that encouragement. They told my uncle to come and tell me that I should utilize it well and that I should remember the refugees when I comeback from Rio.”
12. Close up, athletes running
13. Wide shot, athletes running side by side
14. SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Rose Nathike, South Sudanese refugee Olympic athlete, 800m:
“I feel very excited; this is the first chance for the refugees to participate in the Olympics and to give us hope, for us to encourage the young generations, fellow refugees, who are remaining in the camps maybe to continue their talent.”
15. Various shots, athletes running
16 SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Pur Biel, South Sudanese refugee Olympic athlete, 800m:
“And my fellow refugees, I can tell them that being a refugee is only a status. You can change that status to be a better person in life. Most of them they lose hope in life. When you call someone a refugee, they feel ashamed. Even some of them, maybe, they don’t have a chance to do everything other human beings can do, like going to a school. Most of them stay in the camps because they are losing hope in life. As ambassador for them I can tell them don’t lose hope in life, you have a chance to change your life.”
17. Pan left, athletes stretching after their run
18. Close up, Pur Biel
19. Close up, Anjaline Nadai
20. Close up, Paulo Lokoro
21. Wide shot, athletes stretching
What seemed like a distant dream a year ago was now a reality for these athletes. After fleeing war in South Sudan, these five runners were now going to represent millions of refugees at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Paulo Lokoro, South Sudanese refugee Olympic athlete, 1500m:
“I am very prepared. Now if we go there, we are going to meet with so many people. It’s not me alone going to be running, so we are going to meet the world.”
Next Friday (Aug 5), ten refugee athletes, including the five South Sudanese runners, will run under the Olympic flag as a single team. This would be the first time in history a refugee team completes at the Games.
Anjaline became a refugee in 2002. She had been training for the Olympics for under a year but said she had been improving drastically. Her timing for the 400m run had improved from 85 seconds to around one minute.
SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Anjaline Nadai, South Sudanese refugee Olympic athlete, 1500m:
“I will be hoping at least to meet my fellow refugees and the rest of the sports people and maybe to see the country.”
The five athletes are residents of the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya. After being chosen, they moved to a training facility in Nairobi. Many have family members still in South Sudan or back in Kakuma refugee camp. James Chiengjiek said he left a mother and three sisters behind in South Sudan when he left in 2006. He said his participation in the Olympic Games gives them pride.
SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) James Chiengjiek, South Sudanese refugee Olympic athlete, 400m:
“It makes them happy that I get this chance and they just give me that encouragement. They told my uncle to come and tell me that I should utilize it well and that I should remember the refugees when I comeback from Rio.”
Rose has been training to participate in the 800 metres run in Rio. She said despite having just a few months of training, she and her teammates would do their best to compete at a higher level.
SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Rose Nathike, South Sudanese refugee Olympic athlete, 800m:
“I feel very excited; this is the first chance for the refugees to participate in the Olympics and to give us hope, for us to encourage the young generations, fellow refugees, who are remaining in the camps maybe to continue their talent.”
Pur lost contact with his family in South Sudan. He hoped his participation in the games would help him reconnect with them and give hope to all refugees.
SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Pur Biel, South Sudanese refugee Olympic athlete, 800m:
“And my fellow refugees, I can tell them that being a refugee is only a status. You can change that status to be a better person in life. Most of them they lose hope in life. When you call someone a refugee, they feel ashamed. Even some of them, maybe, they don’t have a chance to do everything other human beings can do, like going to a school. Most of them stay in the camps because they are losing hope in life. As ambassador for them I can tell them don’t lose hope in life, you have a chance to change your life.”
The team will also include two swimmers from Syria and two Judokas from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as an Ethiopian marathon runner.
They go with a hope that their message of peace would resonate across the world to end the conflicts in their homelands.
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