MADAGASCAR / HEALTH

UNICEF brings health services to millions of mothers and children in Madagascar. UNICEF

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:02:25
• Production Date: 25 November 2010
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS CHILDREN'S FUND - UNICEF
• Subject Topical: HEALTH; NUTRITION; HEALTH SERVICES
• Geographic Subject: MADAGASCAR
• MAMS Id: U101125a

Description

STORY: MADAGASCAR / HEALTH
TRT: 2.25
SOURCE: UNICEF
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 27, 29 OCTOBER 2010, ANTANANARIVO, MADAGASCAR

Shotlist

1. Pan left, clouds to Antananarivo
2. Wide shot, lake in Antananarivo
3. Wide shot, little boy sitting under a railing
4. Wide shot, market by the roadside with vendors
5. Med shot, man with baby sitting behind a vendor selling fruits
6. Close shot, old man with a hat
7. Wide shot, old man playing game
8. Med shot, signboard for the health center
9. Tilt down, from the flag to sign
10. Wide shot, people waiting outside the health center
11. Wide shot, woman washing clothes
12. Med shot, over the shoulder, nurse preparing vaccine
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Bruno Maes, Representative in Madagascar, UNICEF:
“The ongoing crisis in Madagascar has had a huge impact on basic health services, which have been profoundly weakened, leaving parts of the system in danger of collapsing.”
14. Med shot, nurse preparing vaccine
15. Close shot, nurse gives child vaccination and places cotton on the arm
16. Med shot, mother holding child who was given the vaccination
17. Wide shot, outreach workers walking in the streets
18. Med shot, outreach worker carrying cooler box with vaccines
19. Close shot, workers feet and their hands holding the boxes
20. Wide shot, outreach workers walking down the streets
21. Med shot, health worker measuring baby’s arms to check the elasticity of her skin
22. Med shot, Volatiana holds her baby as she is examined by health worker for malnutrition
23. Close shot, baby’s arm and measuring tape
24. Close shot, Volatiana holding her crying baby
25. Wide shot, Volatiana entering clinic
26. Wide shot, nurse weighing Volatiana’s baby
27. Med shot, nurse checking weight
28. Wide shot, nurse measuring baby
29. Close shot, baby’s feet
30. Med shot, mother listening to nurses
31. Med shot, nurses talking to mother
32. Close shot, baby in Volatiana’s arms
33. Pan right, from street to a boy sitting on a garbage can
34. Wide shot, boy sitting on the garbage can
35. Wide shot, women looking out of the window
36. Wide shot, outreach workers walking down alley
37. Med shot, girls running

Storyline

A year and half after its violent coup, Madagascar is a country in crisis.

Funding cuts have hit the social welfare system, especially health services, hard while the loss of international trade and a decline in tourism has severely damaged the economy.

Over the last year, the number of health centers forced to close their doors has doubled, depriving the population in these areas of vital health services.

Health centres that have remained open tend to be under stocked and understaffed.

SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Bruno Maes, Representative in Madagascar, UNICEF:
“The ongoing crisis in Madagascar has had a huge impact on basic health services, which have been profoundly weakened, leaving parts of the system in danger of collapsing.”

Despite this and despite the withdrawal of government support, UNICEF and partners recently launched their bi-annual ‘mother-child health week’, bringing checkups, immunizations and vitamin supplementation to four million women and children across the country.

Health centres encouraged mothers to bring in their babies, but it was the outreach workers who brought services to the population. With small, portable cooler boxes, full of vaccines, they took to streets across the country, checking, immunizing, dispensing and advising wherever needed.

Eighteen-year-old Volatiana Rafaramalala has brought her six-month-old daughter Sanda Anna for a checkup. Volatiana herself hasn’t been eating and can no longer produce milk for Sanda. The team examines the baby and finds her severely malnourished.

She’s referred to the health centre, where nurses carry out a comprehensive examination. But baby Sanda is too malnourished even for therapeutic food, her digestive system would not be able to cope.

The nurses explain that baby Sanda now needs a hospital. Baby Sanda will recover but doctors and nurses here are merely treating the symptom. The underlying cause is the decline of the economy, social welfare system and health system. An estimated 195 children under five die each day in Madagascar.