Unifeed
KENYA / DROUGHT
STORY: KENYA / DROUGHT
TRT: 5.17
SOURCE: UNTV / IRIN / OCHA
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: SOMALI / ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: OCTOBER 2008, WAJIR, EASTERN KENYA
OCTOBER 2008, WAJIR, EASTERN KENYA
1. Med shot, Bishar looking into camera
2. Wide shot, Bishar and his family
3. Wide shot, barren landscape
4. Close up, dry soil
5. Med shot, woman and children by hut
6. Zoom out, from woman to standing camel
7. Various shots, village
8. Wide shot, people in village
9. SOUNDBITE (Somali) Bishar Dowd Emoi:
“If we stayed here where we have problems I will die and so will my children.”
FILE -IRIN - 2008, KENYA
10. Various shots, post election violence
11. Various shots, desert
OCTOBER 2008, WAJIR, EASTERN KENYA
12. Aerial shot, Wajir
13. Close up, land
14. Wide shot, camels walking
15. Med shot, dry tree branches
FEBRUARY 2009, NEW YORK CITY
16. Zoom in, map of Horn of Africa
OCTOBER 2008, WAJIR, EASTERN KENYA
17. Med shot, woman and family sitting
18. Close up, child
19. Med shot, woman walking by animal corpse
20. Med shot, mother and child
21. Close up, child
22. Various shots, Bishar herding goats
23. SOUNDBITE (Somali) Bishar Dowd Emoi:
“We are moving today with the animals to look for fresh pastures where it will be better for our goats. It will also be good for us to find new life.”
24. Various shots, desert
25. Various shots, Bishar with donkeys
26. SOUNDBITE (Somali) Bishar Dowd Emoi:
“We were trying to save the animals but there were no pastures anywhere – even the children were looking. We just couldn’t find pastures and water in the same place – even though we went searching further and further.”
27. Various shots, dead animals in barren landscape
28. Med shot, goat feeding off its mother
29. Med shot, skinning goat
30. Various shots, village scenes
31. Wide shot, woman in dry landscape
OCTOBER 2008, NAIROBI, KENYA
32. SOUNDBITE (English) Jurjen Draijer, FAO:
“There’s no time any more to recuperate.
33. Med shot, Jurgen at his desk
34. SOUNDBITE (English) Jurjen Draijer, FAO:
“Normally there would be a drought but then people would have like, five to six, seven years to recover their herds and to, you know, get back to full strength. But now with the droughts that happen more frequently that time is cut short and then, you know, by the time they are half way through, there’s another drought coming.”
OCTOBER 2008, WAJIR, EASTERN KENYA
35. Wide shot, two women in desert
36. Tracking shot, desert
37. Med shot, Bishar pulling caravan
38. Med shot, children traveling on backs of camels
39. Various shots, caravan
40. Various shots, Bashir and his goats
41. SOUNDBITE (Somali) Bishar Dowd Emoi:
“Times change; we expected it to be a good year but we’re in a tough time now. It’s in the hands of God. We’re hoping it will be a better year next year. If it rains enough, then life goes on – if it doesn’t rain, then it’s a problem.”
42. Med shot, Bishar bringing water from well
43. Med shot, goats drinking water
44. Med shot, goat given medical treatment
45. Med shot, goats
46. Various shots, Bishar cuts down bushes
47. SOUNDBITE (Somali) Bishar Dowd Emoi:
“We always have hope. And if you are in difficulty it’s impossible to give up, after all you’re faced with hunger and thirst, and when you need to eat, you have to look for food.”
48. Various shots, children on caravan
49. Wide shot, family with cooking pot under trees
50. Med shot, baby goat
51. Med shot, woman under tree
Fifty-year-old Bishar Daud Emoi is afraid of one thing above all – his family is in danger, from drought, and he knows he’ll have to act quickly to protect his wife and children.
Preparations are already under way. Some family members pack provisions on the backs of camels while Bishar rounds up the donkeys.
Today Bishar is leaving the village where he, his wife, and six children have lived for the past five years. They have no choice.
SOUNDBITE (Somali) Bishar Dowd Emoi:
“If we stayed here where we have problems I will die and so will my children.”
Recently, Kenya has been roiled by the violence that broke out after disputed presidential elections which forced hundreds of thousands to flee, but many millions more are now at grave risk from a natural catastrophe caused by drought.
Wajir, in Kenya’s North Eastern Province, is a region of parched landscapes and camel trains, as well as its share of conflict spilling over from nearby Somalia. The area is so arid it’s impossible to grow crops.
Wajir is just part of a huge swathe of territory across the Horn of Africa where 17 million people are living on the brink, struggling to cope with soaring food prices and failing rains, among them, far too many children exposed to malnutrition.
And now, failed autumn rains have finally forced Bishar to undertake an uncertain and hazardous journey, to save his family.
SOUNDBITE (Somali) Bishar Dowd Emoi:
“We are moving today with the animals to look for fresh pastures where it will be better for our goats. It will also be good for us to find new life.”
This isn’t the first time Bishar has faced danger. When droughts struck in 2005 and 2006, the whole family launched a desperate search for pastures.
SOUNDBITE (Somali) Bishar Dowd Emoi:
“We were trying to save the animals but there were no pastures anywhere, even the children were looking. We just couldn’t find pastures and water in the same place, even though we went searching further and further.”
Despite their best efforts all their cows died; a loss that left the family dependent for its very survival on its goat herd, for milk, blood and meat and also income from selling goats for slaughter.
Population growth in the region means that grazing lands are increasingly occupied by settlements. This has added to the difficulties for pastoralist people like Bishar, who live entirely off their livestock.
Climate change is also producing more frequent and severe droughts.
SOUNDBITE (English) Jurjen Draijer, FAO:
“There’s no time any more to recuperate.”
Jurjen Draijer, with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.
SOUNDBITE (English) Jurjen Draijer, FAO:
“Normally there would be a drought but then people would have like, five to six, seven years to recover their herds and to, you know, get back to full strength. But now with the droughts that happen more frequently that time is cut short and then, you know, by the time they are half way through, there’s another drought coming.”
Now, with drought striking once again, Bishar, along with his cousins and in-laws, sets off on a search for new pastures, traveling eastward for about 30 kilometers toward the Somali border.
Bishar can’t be certain what the trek will bring, or how long he’ll stay away before returning to the village, it could be months.
SOUNDBITE (Somali) Bishar Dowd Emoi:
“Times change. We expected it to be a good year but we’re in a tough time now. It’s in the hands of God. We’re hoping it will be a better year next year. If it rains enough, then life goes on, if it doesn’t rain, then it’s a problem.”
With international help, Bishar was able to save his goat herd when drought had reduced it by three-quarters to only eight animals. An aid agency, financed by the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund, supplied him with 15 goats and continues to help by vaccinating his animals against disease.
But even with outside help, life is hard in Wajir’s unforgiving landscape. The survivors rely on a mixture of resilience and optimism.
SOUNDBITE (Somali) Bishar Dowd Emoi:
“We always have hope. And if you are in difficulty it’s impossible to give up, after all you’re faced with hunger and thirst, and when you need to eat, you have to look for food.”
Tonight Bishar’s family will sleep under the trees; one meal will have to suffice for the whole day. They hope that somewhere ahead they’ll find enough pasture for their goats.
And with each new day the search will begin all over again.
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