SYRIA / DOUMA GRANDI

After more than six years, the once besieged town of Douma in Syria’s Eastern Ghouta is slowly seeing residents start to rebuild and the displaced return, but the task ahead is enormous. UNHCR

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:01:20
• Production Date: 30 August 2018
• Asset Language: Arabic; English
• Personal Subject: FILIPPO GRANDI
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES - UNHCR
• Subject Topical: CONFLICT SITUATION
• Geographic Subject: SYRIA
• MAMS Id: 2224834
• Parent Id: 2224834
• Alternate Title: unifeed180830e

Description

STORY: SYRIA / DOUMA GRANDI
TRT: 1:20
SOURCE: UNHCR
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT UNHCR ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / ARABIC / NATS

DATELINE: 30 AUGUST 2018, DOUMA, SYRIA

Shotlist

RECENT - NEW YORK CITY

1. Travelling shot, destruction in Douma
2. Close up, workers clearing rubble
3. Wide shot, workers clearing rubble
4. Wide shot, men rebuilding their house
5. Med shot, Mohammad in front of his house
6. Wide shot, Mohammad’s destroyed house
7. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mohammad Mustafa, Douma resident:
“The missile hit by the tree over there. If it hit here it would have buried us all in the house. No one would have escaped.”
8. Wide shot, destroyed house
9. Wide shot, bread production line
10. Close up, bread production line
11. Med shot, kids in school
12. Med shot, employee at registry office
13. Close up, mother at registry office
14. Close up, hand writing on document
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Filippo Grandi, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees:
“The Syrian people are incredibly resilient, and it is this resilience, it is this strength that we must support and sustain.”
16. Wide shot, High Commissioner walking in the rubble
17. Wide shot, High Commissioner and partners walking away

Storyline

After more than six years, the once besieged town of Douma in Syria’s Eastern Ghouta is slowly seeing residents start to rebuild and the displaced return, but the task ahead is enormous.

Douma is the main city and administrative centre in Eastern Ghouta, Rural Damascus. It is located about 10km northeast of Damascus. There are an estimated 25,000 households, about 125,000 people living in the area. Before the crisis there were an estimated 300,000.

For six years Douma in Eastern Ghouta was a city under siege. The destruction is almost unimaginable, but an end to the fighting has meant people can start to rebuild.

Seventy-five -year-old Mohammad lost everything.

SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mohammad Mustafa, Douma resident:
“The missile hit by the tree over there. If it hit here it would have buried us all in the house. No one would have escaped.”

Everything needs to be rebuilt or repaired: factories to make bread. Schools for children who’ve missed out for years; registry offices to help people get papers, register births, marriages, and also deaths.

During a visit to Douma, UN refugee agency (UNHCR) chief Filippo Grandi said many people have returned and are trying to live a normal life amidst the ruins.

SOUNDBITE (English) Filippo Grandi, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees:
“The Syrian people are incredibly resilient, and it is this resilience, it is this strength that we must support and sustain.”

UNHCR said it is providing basic things like plastics sheets, mattresses, kitchen sets and, with their local legal aide partner, is providing legal assistance to residents in need of documentation.