BENIN / CHILD PROTECTION

A UNICEF-supported home in Benin provides shelter to hundreds of children, who have escaped the threat of exploitation, early marriage and trafficking. UNICEF

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:02:21
• Production Date: 26 May 2010
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS CHILDREN'S FUND - UNICEF
• Subject Topical: HUMAN RIGHTS
• Geographic Subject: BENIN
• MAMS Id: U100526d

Description

STORY: BENIN / CHILD PROTECTION
TRT: 2:21
SOURCE: UNICEF
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: FRENCH / NATS

DATELINE: DECEMBER 2009, PARAKOU, BENIN

Shotlist

1. Various shots, Sister Ines helps Sophie make her bed in St. Joseph’s Home
2. Med shot, Sophie unpacking bag
3. Close up, hair band
4. Various shot, Sophie unpacking possessions
5. Various shots, girls playing on swings
6. Various shot, girls clapping
7. SOUNDBITE (French) Sister Ines Germaine Gomis, St. Joseph’s Home:
“Typically the boys stay for three months. The girls are often under threat of forced marriage and rape so we can’t return them to their families.”
8. Wide shot, Sister Ines sitting on bed with Sophie
9. Close up, Sister Ines and Sophie
10. Med shot, nuns and girls at St. Joseph’s Home
11. Close up, nuns’s hand
12. Med shot, Sophie at chalk board
13. Wide shot, nun teaching literacy to girls at St. Joseph’s Home
14. Close up, girls learning alphabet
15. Med shot, boys talking with nun at St. Joseph’s Home
16. Close up, hand drawing with chalk
17. Close up, boy drawing with chalk
18. Wide shot, people in marketplace
19. Close up, poster of hands of trafficked child
20. SOUNDBITE (French) Maurille Sindjaloum, Social Worker:
“It is difficult when it is the family who push the child to go to Nigeria. Often they expect the child to bring something back for them and in that case it is not easy to re-intergrate them.”
21. Wide shot, two children sitting on edge of road
22. Pan left, boy walking on road
23. Med shot, children in marketplace
24. Pan right, girl walking through market place
25. Pan left, girl running through market place with bowl on head
26. Wide shot, people in marketplace
27. Med shot, women sitting
28. Wide shot, Sophie rides on back on motorbike

Storyline

Thirteen-year-old Sophie was promised for marriage for her older brother’s wife’s family. When she refused, her older brother beat her up and threatened to kill her. She fled to the bush where she hid. After three days, a policeman found her and brought her to this sanctuary, a home run by Salesian sisters.

For the last six months, Sophie has found support, friendship and love at the home which opened its doors in Parakou, the second largest city in Benin in 2006. It has since provided shelter to hundreds of children, who have escaped the threat of exploitation, early marriage and trafficking. It is one of many shelters operated by partners with support from UNICEF around the country.

SOUNDBITE (French) Sister Ines Germaine Gomis, St. Joseph’s Home:
“Typically the boys stay for three months, while the girls are often under threat of forced marriage and rape so we can’t return them to their families.”

Although they only have beds for 30 children, they often accommodate up to 70 children.

Sophie admits she misses her mother, but at this stage the social worker here say it is not yet safe for her to return. The nuns along with a team of dedicated teachers keep her and her new friends busy learning how to read and write, acquiring new skills and playing games.

Five teenage boys arrive at the center. They have just been intercepted with a trafficker trying to cross the border into Nigeria. Lured by promises of motor bikes and cash many become trapped in exploitative labor working on rock quarries. Often the parents knowingly let the children go hoping it will lead to a way out of poverty.

SOUNDBITE (French) Maurille Sindjaloum, Social Worker:
“It is difficult when it is the family who push the child to go to Nigeria. Often they expect the child to bring something back for them and in that case it is not easy to reintegrate them.”

Comprehensive numbers on trafficking are scant. The most recent UNICEF study found that more than 40,000 children were trafficked, from or through Benin to wealthier neighboring countries.

In response, the Government has passed an act criminalizing the trafficking of children and developed a national policy on child protection. The coordinated efforts of local authorities, NGOs, the police and UNICEF are helping to increase the numbers of traffickers being caught, increase services for victims, and raise public awareness.