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UNICEF / DRC FORE LOWCOCK
STORY: UNICEF / DRC FORE LOWCOCK
TRT: 02:43
SOURCE: UNICEF
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT UNICEF ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 19 MARCH 2019, BENI / 20 MARCH 2019, BUNIA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO (DRC)
19 MARCH 2019, BENI, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO (DRC)
1. Wide shot, UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore and delegation entering Ebola treatment centre
2. Various shots, Fore with doctor at cubicle
20 MARCH 2019, BUNIA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO (DRC)
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Henrietta Fore, Executive Director, UNICEF:
“People here have fled a conflict that has destroyed their homes and communities. DRC faces some of the world’s largest and most complex humanitarian crises, with a mixture of war, poverty, natural disasters and diseases. 13 million people need humanitarian assistance, more than the entire population of Belgium or Greece. Over half of these are children whose lives and futures are at risk. The country is now grappling with its 10th Ebola outbreak. Nearly 1000 people infected, one third of them children. Malnutrition rates are high, 1.4 million children are severely malnourished and at imminent risk of death.”
19 MARCH 2019, BENI, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO (DRC)
4. Various shots, Fore with children
20 MARCH 2019, BUNIA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO (DRC)
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Henrietta Fore, Executive Director, UNICEF:
“Here in this camp, in many others across the country, UNICEF is providing health care and a safe place for children to play and to learn. We help send children to school, we vaccinate them against deadly diseases, we provide them with safe water to drink and we protect them from violence, exploitation and abuse.”
19 MARCH 2019, BENI, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO (DRC)
6. Med shot, Fore sitting with Jeanette Buse Lasi, widowed mother of four
7. Med shot, Fore talking to Moise Baraka, 12-year-old orphan
20 MARCH 2019, BUNIA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO (DRC)
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Mark Lowcock, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator:
“There are more than 40 million people around the world displaced by conflict and violence in humanitarian settings. Many of them are living in places just like this. Today I’m in Bunia, in Ituri
Province in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In this country there are millions of people displaced by conflict who end up living under plastic sheets just like the ones you can see behind me. The world is not doing nearly a good enough job for these people. These people I’m listening to today have been displaced in this place for more than a year. They need to have a chance to go back home.
But that requires security. And that means the men with the guns who are perpetrating the violence and who have displaced these people from their homes need to find a way, peacefully, to resolve their differences. And then people have a chance to go home and resume their normal life.”
19 MARCH 2019, BENI, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO (DRC)
9. Wide shot, caretaker and Ebola suspected baby
10. Close up, cured mother kissing her baby
With the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) facing one of the largest and most complex humanitarian crises in the world, UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore and Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock called today (21 Mar) for urgent and sustained funding for the Government-led response to meet the needs of children, families and vulnerable communities including people with disabilities.
Fore traveled to Beni and Butembo where she visited Ebola treatment facilities. She then went to day care centres where Ebola survivors, now immune to the virus, look after small children whose mothers are undergoing treatment and who themselves are at risk of developing the disease. Children account for one third of all Ebola cases – more than in any previous outbreak. Over 1,000 children have been separated from their parents or have been orphaned due to Ebola.
SOUNDBITE (English) Henrietta Fore, Executive Director, UNICEF:
“People here have fled a conflict that has destroyed their homes and communities. DRC faces some of the world’s largest and most complex humanitarian crises, with a mixture of war, poverty, natural disasters and diseases. 13 million people need humanitarian assistance, more than the entire population of Belgium or Greece. Over half of these are children whose lives and futures are at risk. The country is now grappling with its 10th Ebola outbreak. Nearly 1000 people infected, one third of them children. Malnutrition rates are high, 1.4 million children are severely malnourished and at imminent risk of death.”
While the DRC has made progress in recent years in some areas, including a drop in the number of children dying before age 5 and larger numbers being enrolled into school, the overall humanitarian situation remains alarming. The number of people facing hunger jumped from 7.7 million in 2017 to 13 million last year. At least 4 million children are malnourished. Cholera, measles and Ebola continue to blight many lives.
SOUNDBITE (English) Henrietta Fore, Executive Director, UNICEF:
“Here in this camp, in many others across the country, UNICEF is providing health care and a safe place for children to play and to learn. We help send children to school, we vaccinate them against deadly diseases, we provide them with safe water to drink and we protect them from violence, exploitation and abuse.”
In Bunia, Ituri province, Fore and Lowcock visited a site for internally displaced persons, where they met with Janette Dusi Lasi who was wounded and lost her husband when their village was attacked. She now lives in the camp with her four children.
SOUNDBITE (English) Mark Lowcock, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator:
“There are more than 40 million people around the world displaced by conflict and violence in humanitarian settings. Many of them are living in places just like this. Today I’m in Bunia, in Ituri
Province in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In this country there are millions of people displaced by conflict who end up living under plastic sheets just like the ones you can see behind me. The world is not doing nearly a good enough job for these people. These people I’m listening to today have been displaced in this place for more than a year. They need to have a chance to go back home.
But that requires security. And that means the men with the guns who are perpetrating the violence and who have displaced these people from their homes need to find a way, peacefully, to resolve their differences. And then people have a chance to go home and resume their normal life.”
In Kinshasa, the UN principals held constructive discussions with President Félix Tshisekedi who reiterated the Government’s commitment to leading the humanitarian response across the country.
The UN principals expressed the UN’s solidarity with the Congolese people. They also met with Health Minister, Oly Ilunga, to discuss the Ebola outbreak, as well as other diseases such measles, cholera and polio that are affecting the country.
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