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SOUTH SUDAN / BODA BODA RIDERS
STORY: SOUTH SUDAN / BODA BODA RIDERS
TRT: 02:40
SOURCE: UNMISS
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 08 FEBRUARY 2019, BUNJ, SOUTH SUDAN
1. Pan right, boda boda riders on mandate and traffic session
2. Wide shot, boda boda riders lining up for distribution
3. Med shot, officials handing helmet and jacket to riders
4. Med shot, boda boda riders preparing their gear
5. Med shot, an official handing over helmet and jacket to a female rider.
6. SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Hazel Dewet, UNMISS Head of Field Office, Malakal:
“What we did here today, was not to talk to you about how we would want to see protection, but how you can protect yourselves.”
7. Close up, helmet
8. SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Hazel Dewet, UNMISS Head of Field Office, Malakal:
“I would hope that what you have heard here today, from the traffic police, from our UNPOL [UN Police] and understanding the dangers that you face every day, that that would become part, when you go out to do your work as boda boda drivers you will implement those lessons and those [guidelines] that have been provided to you.”
9. Med shot, Joyce on her boda boda talking to the association chairman.
10. Various shots, Joyce starting her boda boda engine
11. Close up, Joyce appears on her boda boda side mirror
12. Various shots, Joyce igniting and taking off
13. SOUNDBITE (ARABIC) Joyce Yepeta, female boda boda rider:
“I came to Bunj here to become a boda boda rider to make money and that is what will help me to be like other business people.”
14. Wide shot, boda boda riders in circle
15. Wide shot, a traffic police leading the boda bida riders
16. SOUNDBITE (ARABIC) Stephen Gabriel, boda boda rider:
“This is a very important thing for us, because we were not being clearly identified as boda boda riders but now we have shown ourselves to our passengers over there, before we were wearing non-uniform without self-identification, now it is an important thing that UNMISS has done for us.”
17. Various shots, boda boda riders lined up
18. Wide shot, boda boda riders’ parade on a show
Bunj, a small, yet busy town located in South Sudan’s Maban county came to a standstill when more than one hundred boda boda riders rode through its streets following a successful conclusion of a training workshop on road safety, conducted by the UN Mission in South Sudan’s Malakal field office. Boda boda, as the motorcycle taxi is commonly known, is the only and quickest means of transportation in the Maban area.
These boda boda riders would ordinarily be zooming through the streets at this time, with little care about safety. Yet, they have taken a break to learn something that will benefit them and their clients. After the training, they come up in a queue, and one by one, receive what most of them have never held or used before: safety helmets and reflective vests.
SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Hazel Dewet, UNMISS Head of Field Office, Malakal:
“What we did here today, was not to talk to you about we would want to see protection, but how you can protect yourselves.”
The training was a collaborative effort between the South Sudan National Police Traffic Service and the United Nations Police (UNPOL).
SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Hazel Dewet, UNMISS Head of Field Office, Malakal:
“I would hope that what you have heard here today, from the traffic police, from our UNPOL [UN Police] and understanding the dangers that you face every day, that that would become part, when you go out to do your work as boda boda drivers you will implement those lessons and those [guidelines] that have been provided to you.”
Of the over one hundred riders, only one was female.
Twenty-five-year-old Joyce Yepeta has been running her boda boda business in Bunj since 2017, when she moved here following the loss of her family in the conflict that has torn apart the world’s youngest nation.
SOUNDBITE (ARABIC) Joyce Yepeta, Bunj’s only female boda boda rider:
“I came to Bunj here to become a boda boda rider to make money and that is what will help me to be like other business people.”
The riders were also educated on the UN mission’s mandate. Fully equipped with knowledge about road safety, each rider wore their newly-received safety helmet and reflective jacket, ready to carry out their boda boda business safely. The riders, who are part of an association, are now also easily identifiable.
SOUNDBITE (ARABIC) Stephen Gabriel a male boda boda rider:
“This is a very important thing for us, because we were not being clearly identified as boda boda riders but now we have shown ourselves to our passengers over there, before we were wearing non-uniform without self-identification, now it is an important thing that UNMISS has done for us.”
The UN mission is working with common interest groups to spread messages about its mandate and to disseminate important messages of peace throughout the country.
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