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SOUTH SUDAN / MATERNAL MORTALITY
STORY: SOUTH SUDAN / MATERNAL MORTALITY
TRT: 2:50
SOURCE: UNICEF
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / ARABIC / NATS
DATELINE: 10 JULY 2011, JUBA SOUTH SUDAN
1. Wide shot, statue of liberty man in parade
2. Close up, dancing feet
3. Wide shot, drumming circle
4. Med shot, Man blowing vuvuzela
5. Med shot, drumming circle
6. Pan right, drumming circle
7. Med shot, baby
8. Wide shot, healthworker and mother
9. Close up, baby
10. Wide shot, pregnant woman sitting on ground
11. Close up, pregnant mother
12. Med shot, pregnant mother
13. Various shots, baby
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Yasmin Ali Haque, UNICEF Representative:
“South Sudan is still really one of the riskiest places for a child to be born in many aspects of it. First of all, the child is most likely to be born in the hands of an untrained attendant in a village hut without the necessary precautions that would prevent any infections or take care of any emergency that might happen to the child. But also the child’s mother is most at risk.”
15. Wide shot, interior, way station
16. Med shot, mother
17. Close up, pot
18. Med shot, boy with toy
19. Close up, toy
20. Med shot, mother’s feet
21. Med shot, mother with children
22. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Suria Sirmani, South Sudanese Returnee:
“The children are happy, they can play around the place, but life is not good here. It’s overcrowded and of course it’s better when you live in your own home. The food is not good – lentils all the time. So the children’s health is beginning to deteriorate.”
23. Wide shot, way station
24. Wide shot, women and kids at way station
25. Med shot, girl at way station
26. Med shot, paralysed boy with toy
27. Close up, toy and boy’s foot
28. Med shot, boys face
29. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Yasmin Ali Haque, UNICEF Representative:
“They get separated from their families, the fact that they are no longer in a normal situation means that they are at risk, schooling is disrupted, health services are disrupted and the general family economy is disrupted so that makes them more at risk.”
30. Wide shot, dancing
31. Med shot, dancing
32. Wide shot, poor kids near dancing
33. Med shot, poor kid near dancing
Independent South Sudan is moving to a joyous rhythm. The early days of freedom are casting an intoxicating spell over Africa’s newest nation.
Away from the crowds, a quieter celebration as first-time mother Farida Runbe nurses her baby daughter.
Like South Sudan, the little girl was born on the 9th of July. Her mother had the good fortune to give birth in a hospital, with medical care at hand – something denied the vast majority of mothers in this, one of the poorest countries on earth.
No surprise, then, that South Sudan has one of the world’s highest maternal mortality rates.
“South Sudan is still really one of the riskiest places for a child to be born in many aspects of it. First of all, the child is most likely to be born in the hands of an untrained attendant in a village hut without the necessary precautions that would prevent any infections or take care of any emergency that might happen to the child. But also the child’s mother is most at risk.”
Mothers like Suria have additional challenges to contend with. She and her four children live in a transit camp outside Juba for families who’ve returned from the north and elsewhere. Some leave quickly, others have nowhere else to go.
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Suria Sirmani, South Sudanese Returnee:
“The children are happy, they can play around the place, but life is not good here. It’s overcrowded and of course it’s better when you live in your own home. The food is not good – lentils all the time. So the children’s health is beginning to deteriorate.”
Some three hundred thousand people have flooded into South Sudan in recent months, and many more are on the way. In addition, conflict along the border with north Sudan has driven many other families from their homes.
Unstable times like these pose a particular threat to the most vulnerable children, a key focus for UNICEF and its partners.
SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Yasmin Ali Haque, UNICEF Representative:
“They get separated from their families, the fact that they are no longer in a normal situation means that they are at risk, schooling is disrupted, health services are disrupted and the general family economy is disrupted so that makes them more at risk.”
The festivities will continue for a while, but the hard work of building a state in which children and their rights are properly respected is barely begun.
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