PAKISTAN / HEALTH WORKERS

UNICEF is supporting a Lady Health Workers (LHW) programme in flodd-affected Sindh, aimed at raising awareness on basic hygiene and the importance of immunization for women and children in the camps. UNICEF

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:01:53
• Production Date: 15 September 2010
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS CHILDREN'S FUND - UNICEF
• Subject Topical: HEALTH SERVICES; DISEASE PREVENTION; DISEASE CONTROL
• Geographic Subject: PAKISTAN
• MAMS Id: U100915f

Description

STORY: PAKISTAN / HEALTH WORKERS
TRT: 1:53
SOURCE: UNICEF
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: URDU / NATS

DATELINE: 31 AUGUST 2010, SINDH PROVINCE, PAKISTAN

Shotlist

1. Wide shot, three women washing clothes at a hand pump
2. Med shot, old women sitting together
3. Wide shot, family living at the edge of a bridge
4. Tilt up, woman washing dishes with mud and grass
5. Zoom out, woman making tea on the ground with a goat nearby
6. SOUNDBITE (Urdu) Mai Koonj, displaced:
“We understand now about cleanliness. The lady health workers are teaching us about hand washing also, but these are the only clothes I have to wear, so it becomes difficult to keep them clean.”
7. Wide shot, women listening to a health worker
8. Wide shot of health worker
9. Med shot, Mai Koonj
10. Wide shot, women listening to health workers
11. Med shot, women fanning themselves as they listen to health workers
12. Close up, Mai Koonj as she actively participates in the discussions.
13. Close up, old woman
14. Close up, health workers
15. Close up, health workers showing medical material
16. Med shot, women listening to the LHW and discussing the topics.
17. Medium Shot of LHW’s distributing handouts.
18. SOUNDBITE (Urdu) Shakeela, Lady Health Worker:
“We have been conducting health surveillance and early detection of infectious diseases, and have been teaching them to practice basic hygiene and advocating for immunization. Many of them are now making sure that their children are vaccinated and are administered polio drops.”
19. Close up, vaccine being injected into a child.
20. Wide shot, women and children together listening health workers
21. Med shot, women sitting in a tent, listening to a health brief
22. Med shot, women and children sitting on a wooden bed

Storyline

UNICEF says that eighty-five percent of the people displaced by the floods that swallowed a fifth of Pakistan are women and children. And as the floodwaters rise in Sindh, they are at acute risk from starvation, exposure and water-borne diseases.

Women’s hygiene and health in particular has deteriorated here and the situation is even worse for menstruating and pregnant women.

To help the situation, a UNICEF supported Lady Health Workers (LHW) programme has been mobilized in flood-affected Sindh, aimed at raising awareness on basic hygiene and the importance of immunization for women and children in the camps.

Mai Koonj has been in a camp for three weeks.

SOUNDBITE (Urdu) Mai Koonj, displaced:
“We understand now about cleanliness. The lady health workers are teaching us about hand washing also, but these are the only clothes I have to wear, so it becomes difficult to keep them clean.”

Health education sessions are being conducted daily to deliver messages related issues like pre and post natal care for pregnant women, breast feeding and immunization.

SOUNDBITE (Urdu) Shakeela, Lady Health Worker:
“We have been conducting health surveillance and early detection of infectious diseases, and have been teaching them to practice basic hygiene and advocating for immunization. Many of them are now making sure that their children are vaccinated and are administered polio drops.”

There are almost 13,000 Lady Health Workers that have reached approximately 440,000 affected women in Sindh, but the numbers are not always sufficient to meet the crushing demand for help.

UNICEF says the situation is still critical for many, and urges relief efforts to be stepped up and sustained in order to reach out to the millions affected.