PAKISTAN / DISPLACED

Fighting between government forces and militants in northwestern Pakistan continues, forcing a massive exodus from the Swat valley. The population of displaced grows daily - more than half of the homeless are children. UNICEF

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:02:37
• Production Date: 20 May 2009
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS CHILDREN'S FUND - UNICEF
• Subject Topical: HUMANITARIAN RELIEF; REFUGEES; DISPLACED PERSONS
• Geographic Subject: PAKISTAN
• MAMS Id: U090520b

Description

STORY: PAKISTAN / DISPLACED
TRT: 2.37
SOURCE: UNICEF
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / PASHTO / NATS

DATELINE: 14 MAY 2009, MARDAN DISTRICT, NORTH WEST FRONTIER PROVINCE, PAKISTAN

1. Pan right, Jalala Camp for Internally Displaced Persons
2. Various shots, children in camp
3. Med shot, banner for Primary School Jalala Camp for IDPs
4. Wide shot, children coming into the primary school tent
5. Wide shot, boys reciting their lesson
6. Med shot, girls coming into their tent school
7. Wide shot, a girl reads and others repeat after her inside the school tent
8. Med shot, a girl carrying her infant brother enters a tent for vaccination.
9. Various shots, infant is given polio drops.
10. Pan left, from UNICEF latrines to children drinking water from a clean drinking water source
11. Various shots, children drinking water
12. Wide shot, women washing cloths
13. Wide shot, boys moving in front of the ‘Missing/Lost Children Information and Facilitation Centre.’
14. Med shot, UNICEF supported ‘Missing / Lost Children Information and Facilitation Centre.’
15. Various shots, girls playing with recreational material in a 'Child Friendly Space' (CFS).
16. Various shots, boys playing volley ball
17. Med shot, child playing outside a tent
18. SOUNDBITE (Pashto) Gullmina, IDP woman and mother of one child:
“We want to go back to Swat. Our children have been severely affected. We are helpless. It is very hot in the tents. Children’s’ health has been affected badly. Their education has also suffered. We desperately want to go back to Swat.”
19. Wide shot, girls washing hands in camp
20. SOUNDBITE (English) Luc Chauvin, Pakistan Deputy Representative, UNICEF:
“In addition to the twelve million dollars that we still need to receive from the international donor community to support the existing cases of IDP’s, we still need another forty five million dollars for the newly displaced. So all together twelve million, plus forty five equals fifty seven million dollars.”
21. Wide shot, boys carrying water in buckets

Storyline

At the end of April, a new army offensive against militants in north-west Pakistan caused the displacement of more than 1.5 million people over the course of only three weeks. They arrived in nearby districts with little or no possessions, and with children traumatized by the conflict. They join more than half a million people displaced since October last year and still unable to go home.

To address the impact of this emergency on children and women, UNICEF and its partners are working as part of a coordinated United Nations (U.N.) response to ensure that displaced children have access to water and sanitation, vaccination, education, as well as protection from abuse or exploitation.

Jalala Camp, where the vast majority of the recently displaced are taking refuge, is located in the Mardan District about 2.5 hours from Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad.

The camp, which had just opened 18 days ago, now hosts more than eleven thousand people, the majority of them children and women.

To bring education and normalcy to children’s lives, UNICEF is assisting camp primary schools and providing supplies benefiting 1,700 girls and boys.

With UNICEF support, health workers vaccinate children against preventable diseases such as polio and measles.

UNICEF is also providing water, latrines and distributing hygiene kits in the camps.

Child friendly spaces in the new set camps are safe environments for children to play and receive psychosocial support. Child protection teams monitor unaccompanied and orphaned children and make sure that households headed by women have access to services and supplies.

Outside a nearby tent sits Gullmina surrounded by her small children. She moved from Rahimabad in the nearby district of Swat.

SOUNDBITE (Pashto) Gullmina, IDP woman and mother of one child:
“We want to go back to Swat. Our children have been severely affected. We are helpless. It is very hot in the tents. Children’s’ health has been affected badly. Their education has also suffered. We desperately want to go back home.”

To continue supporting the displaced children and women in the coming months UNICEF urgently needs funds, says UNICEF Deputy Representative in Pakistan, Luc Chauvin:

SOUNDBITE (English) Luc Chauvin, Pakistan Deputy Representative, UNICEF:
“In addition to the twelve million dollars that we still need to receive from the international donor community to support the existing cases of IDP’s, we still need another forty five million dollars for the newly displaced. So all together twelve million, plus forty five equals fifty seven million dollars.”

This week the United Nations will launch an emergency appeal for hundreds of millions of dollars to cover the costs for food, clothing and shelter for the displaced.