AFGHANISTAN / MINES

The world's first humanitarian mine-action program began in Afghanistan two decades ago, but the country remains dangerously contaminated. UNICEF

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:01:39
• Production Date: 3 April 2009
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS CHILDREN'S FUND - UNICEF
• Subject Topical: PEACE AND SECURITY; DISARMAMENT
• MAMS Id: U090403d

Description

STORY: AFGHANISTAN / LANDMINES
TRT: 1:39
SOURCE: UNICEF
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 2 APRIL 2009, NEW YORK CITY, APRIL 2008, WOCH TANGAI, NANGARHAR PROVINCE, AFGHANISTAN

Shotlist

APRIL 2008, WOCH TANGAI, NANGARHAR PROVINCE, AFGHANISTAN

1. Wide shot, Woch Tangai village
2. Close up, feet walking on minefield
3. Wide shot, controlled detonation
4. Wide shot, UNICEF safe play area in Woch Tangai
5. Med shot, children on slide
6. Wide shot, Woch Tangia with school and safe play area in center
7. Wide shot, general view with mountains
8. Med shot, UNICEF school tents
9. Close up, girl student in school
10. Med shot, girl students
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Prakesh Tuladhar, UNICEF Programme Officer:
“This is a very good initiative to try to get children in schools and to get them playing in safe areas. It also adds a little bit of self-confidence.”
12. Close up, mine education materials
13. Wide shot, mine awareness class
14. Med shot, victims undergoing therapy at rehabilitation center
15. Close up, prosthetic feet

2 APRIL 2009, NEW YORK CITY

16. SOUNDBITE (English) Sharif Baaser, UNICEF Programme Specialist for Landmines:
“It’s not only in the context of Afghanistan. I can say in broader terms at the global level provision of assistance and services to victims, war victims, people with disability, children with disability, has not been sufficient.”

APRIL 2008, WOCH TANGAI, NANGARHAR PROVINCE, AFGHANISTAN

17. Med shot, double amputerr dredding proethetic
18. Close up, face
19. Med shot, child swinging in safe-play area

Storyline

Four years ago, this plain in eastern Afghanistan’s Nangarhar Province was an uninhabitable minefield.

Strewn with hundreds of unexploded ordnance, it was a dangerous place to stray, let alone to play.

But today, the children of about 600 Afghan families can safely enjoy this playground in the village center.

Cleared of its dangerous legacy, the village of Woch Tangai was settled in 2007 by refugees who fled the country nearly twenty years ago.

UNICEF’s role is to support the school, providing a safe area for recreation and learning. As well as a communal center where youth are educated about the risks of mines - information they take home to their families.

SOUNDBITE (English) Prakesh Tuladhar, UNICEF Programme Officer:
“This is a very good initiative to try to get children in schools and to get them playing in safe areas. It also adds a little bit of self-confidence.”

Education and rehabilitation efforts are ongoing throughout the country.
And while Afghanistan’s mine action program is a global model, there is still more work to counter the damage done.

SOUNDBITE (English) Sharif Baaser, UNICEF Programme Specialist for Landmines:
“It’s not only in the context of Afghanistan. I can say in broader terms at the global level provision of assistance and services to victims, war victims, people with disability, children with disability, has not been sufficient.”

The goal is to ensure the rights of all landmine survivors and prevent others from needlessly joining their ranks.