PAKISTAN / WINTER REFUGEES

The UN refugee agency helps thousands of homeless flood victims in Pakistan build shelter as winter approaches. Flooding four months ago left over one million houses damaged and destroyed. UNHCR

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:01:42
• Production Date: 15 December 2010
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES - UNHCR
• Subject Topical: HUMANITARIAN RELIEF; REFUGEES; DISPLACED PERSONS; DISASTER PREVENTION; DISASTER PREPAREDNESS; DISASTER RELIEF
• Geographic Subject: PAKISTAN
• MAMS Id: U101215d

Description

STORY: PAKISTAN / WINTER REFUGEES
TRT: 1:42
SOURCE: UNHCR
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: PASHTUN / ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 9 NOVEMBER 2010, CAMP KOROONA, NOWSHERA, PAKISTAN

Shotlist

1. Various shots, Tilawat Khan building house
2. SOUNDBITE (Pashtun) Tilawat Khan, Flood Victim:
“I am helping my fellow villagers in building their shelter. I left my own work so I can help others finish their house because winter is approaching.”
3. Various shots, people at camp
4. Various shots, boy picking up mud with shovel
5. Various shots, man on roof building
6. Med shot, unfinished house
7. Various shots, Saiful Amin placing bricks to build wall
8. Med shot, boy walking into unfinished house
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Urooj Saifi, Senior Protection Officer, Khyber Pakhtunkwa Province, UN Refugee Agency:
“The community is very much involved in building, and the technical assistance is given by the implementing partners and UNHCR engineers so the community is fully involved in the actions. And before this we had relief packages for all of them in the shape of NFIs tents. You see tents which they have been living in for the last two and half months or three now.”
10. Various shots, Saiful Amin placing bricks to build wall
11. SOUNDBITE (Pashtun) Saiful Amin, Flood Victim:
“The grown-ups can survive the winter but we have children with us who cannot bear the severe winter. We are really thankful to UNHCR which has built this shelter for us to protect us from the winter.”
12. Various shots, Tilawat Khan building house
13. SOUNDBITE (Pashtun) Tilawat Khan, Flood Victim:
“Tomorrow they will build my shelter which is a good omen. We are lucky because it will protect us from the rain, wind and winter. It will help us.”
14. Med shot, boy hammering
15. Med shot, two young children helping each other
16. Various shots, man building house

Storyline

Last July, Tilawat Khan lost everything when floods swept away his village including his home, livestock and all his belongings. Together with his six children, he lived in a tent on a nearby motorway for three months.

They’ve been waiting for their village to dry out.

It has and now he is helping his neighbours build a new home.

SOUNDBITE (Pashtun) Tilawat Khan, Flood Victim:
“I am helping my fellow villagers in building their shelter. I left my own work so I can help others finish their house because winter is approaching.”

In the village of ‘Camp Koroona’ in Nowshera, half the mud houses were simply washed away.

To rebuild the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is providing tools, materials and engineers. Local people are hired to do the work, putting much needed cash back into the community.

250 transitional shelters will be built here and a 1000 more in other nearby villages

SOUNDBITE (English) Urooj Saifi, Senior Protection Officer, Khyber Pakhtunkwa Province, UN Refugee Agency:
“The community is very much involved in building, and the technical assistance is given by the implementing partners and UNHCR engineers so the community is fully involved in the actions. And before this we had relief packages for all of them in the shape of NFIs tents. You see tents which they have been living in for the last two and half months or three now.”

Saiful Amin was also a victim of the floods. For him, a new shelter is a matter of survival.

SOUNDBITE (Pashtun) Saiful Amin, Flood Victim:
“The grown-ups can survive the winter but we have children with us who cannot bear the severe winter. We are really thankful to UNHCR which has built this shelter for us to protect us from the winter.”

Across Pakistan, UNHCR will build 40,000 shelters this year. Tilawat will get one too.

SOUNDBITE (Pashtun) Tilawat Khan, Flood Victim:
“Tomorrow they will build my shelter which is a good omen. We are lucky because it will protect us from the rain, wind and winter. It will help us.”

Along with handing out extra blankets and warm clothes, UNHCR’s shelter programme will give each family here a warm room to live in, helping the most vulnerable get through the winter.