PAKISTAN / LAKE AL PUNJAB FLOODS

Executive Director's Anthony Lake (UNICEF) and Josette Shereen (WFP) travel to Al Punjab Province to assess the flood-affected areas. UNICEF

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:02:47
• Production Date: 3 September 2010
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS CHILDREN'S FUND - UNICEF
• Subject Topical: HEALTH; DISEASES; HUMANITARIAN RELIEF; REFUGEES; DISPLACED PERSONS; DISASTER PREVENTION; DISASTER PREPAREDNESS; DISASTER RELIEF
• Geographic Subject: PAKISTAN
• MAMS Id: U100903b

Description

STORY: PAKISTAN / LAKE AL PUNJAB FLOODS
TRT: 2:47
SOURCE: UNICEF
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / PUNJABI / NATS

DATELINE: 31 AUGUST 2010, MUZAFFARGARH, PAKISTAN

Shotlist

1. Aerial shot, flood damage in area between Multan and Gurjat, Muzaffargarh district
2. Various shots, UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake and WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran
3. Aerial shot, flood damage
4. Med shot, local government officials greeting Lake
5. Various shots, Lake and Sheeran
6. Wide shot, make-shift medical area
7. Wide shot, children on hospital bed, mother at bedside
8. Med shot, mothers speaking at hospital bed
9. Various shots, Lake and Sheeran look at beneficiary list
10. Wide shot, relief center and open air stalls outside
11. Med shot, women at table with water bottles
12. Med shot, mother and her child on arm
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Anthony Lake, Executive Director, UNICEF:
“We are doing our very best to get the clean water, and the sanitation and all of that, and food from World Food Program as best as we can.”
14. Various, Lake and Sheeran hand-out food and hygiene kits to flood-affected
15. Med shot, girls sitting on the floor drawing
16. Various shots, boys on the floor playing
17. Various shots, mother with malnourished child
18. SOUNDBITE (Punjabi), Kaneez, mother:
“We went for two days without eating anything and we were staying out in the open with no roof and no house. My daughter is also suffering. She has been too weak to nurse.”
19. Wide shot, Lake with children
20. SOUNDBITE (English) Anthony Lake, Executive Director, UNICEF:
“So many pictures of dolls. It is such a small thing, all the pictures of dolls but these are dolls that they left behind. And so even if a small thing, they represent something that is heartbreaking in so many ways. Their memories of the flowers and the fruits and the dolls and all of that.”
21. Various shots, Lake with children
22. Med shot, Lake looking out window of helicopter on flood damaged area
23. Aerial shot, flood damage

Storyline

UNICEF’s Executive Director Anthony Lake and World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director Josette Sheeran arrived by helicopter to the remote Muzzafargarh district of Punjab in Pakistan and witnessed first-hand the devastating impact of the recent flooding in Pakistan.

More than 17 million people and one fifth of the country have been affected, making it one of the largest humanitarian crises in decades. This region in particular is one of the worst affected parts of the country.

Lake and Sheeran traveled to the small village of Gujrat to get a closer look at the crisis. Here a local high school has been turned into an emergency relief centre for hundreds of families, mainly women and children. Many of them had been trudging along roads or wading through dangerous flood waters for days.

SOUNDBITE (English) Anthony Lake, Executive Director, UNICEF:
“We are doing our very best to get the clean water, and the sanitation and all of that, and food from World Food Program as best as we can.”

The two agency heads toured the school and saw families receiving a wide range of assistance including food, oral rehydration salts and zinc tablets. Lake and Sheeran handed out food and hygiene kits to women and children.
Nearly 8.6 million children, roughly 50 per cent of the total affected population, have been hit by the flooding. Some 3.5 million children are at risk of contracting deadly water-borne diseases. Lake and Sheeran saw some severely malnourished babies in the medical room with mothers who were unable to breastfeed and babies who had been without food and water for days as they looked for relief from the flooding.

SOUNDBITE (Punjabi), Kaneez, mother:
“We went for two days without eating anything and we were staying out in the open with no roof and no house. My daughter is also suffering. She has been too weak to nurse.”

Yet in the midst of this devastating crisis Lake and Sheeran were able to witness the resilience and remarkable spirit of many of the children, who took great pride in showing their guests some of drawings they had recently made.

SOUNDBITE (English) Anthony Lake, Executive Director, UNICEF:
“So many pictures of dolls. It is such a small thing, all the pictures of dolls but these are dolls that they left behind. And so even if a small thing, they represent something that is heartbreaking in so many ways. Their memories of the flowers and the fruits and the dolls and all of that.”

Reflecting on his mission, Lake felt strongly that the international community needed to step up their support for the victims of the ongoing floods in Pakistan.