CHAD / LAKE

Lack of rain has turned the fields in Chad to dust. Here, and across the Sahel region, the lives of at least a million children are at risk. In western Chad UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake saw the ominous signs of the coming emergency. UNICEF

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:01:56
• Production Date: 5 April 2012
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS CHILDREN'S FUND - UNICEF
• Subject Topical: HEALTH; NUTRITION; HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE
• Geographic Subject: CHAD
• MAMS Id: U120405c

Description

STORY: CHAD/ LAKE
TRT: 1.56
SOURCE: UNICEF
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 4 APRIL 2012, WESTERN CHAD

Shotlist

1. Wide shot, camels
2. Med shot, Anthony Lake looks at nutrition charts
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Anthony Lake, Executive Director, UNICEF:
“Already here in Chad, as you saw in the charts we looked at, the rates of severe acute malnutrition, in which children are in imminent peril of dying, is already at the beginning of this year, higher than at the worst times of any previous year. So this looks to be a very, very serious crisis.”
4. Med shot, Anthony Lake looks at grain
5. Various, nutrition centre
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Anthony Lake, UNICEF Executive Director:
“When you see it coming, there is absolutely no excuse for the international community not to have been reacting.”
7. Med shot, mother and baby
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Anthony Lake, Executive Director, UNICEF:
Nutritional deficiencies kill children, but even more they weaken them, to other diseases – so the children here are receiving treatment, not just for malnutrition, but also with vaccinations, and with immediate medical care for other diseases as well.”
9. Various shots, Anthony Lake at nutrition centre

Storyline

Lack of rain has turned the fields in Chad to dust. Here, and across the Sahel region, the lives of at least a million children are at risk.

In western Chad UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake saw the ominous signs of the coming emergency.

SOUNDBITE (English) UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake
“Already here in Chad, as you saw in the charts we looked at, the rates of severe acute malnutrition, in which children are in imminent peril of dying, is already at the beginning of this year, higher than at the worst times of any previous year.”

Droughts in recent years have weakened the Chadians ability to cope with this latest shock. At least 127,000 Chadian children under the age of five could die if they don’t receive care.

Lake’s visit is part of a global UNICEF campaign to raise 120 million dollars so that UNICEF and its partners can act before it’s too late for the children of the Sahel.

SOUNDBITE (English) Anthony Lake, Executive Director, UNICEF:

“When you see it coming, there is absolutely no excuse for the international community not to have been reacting.”

UNICEF has been working for months getting supplies in place and treating children for malnutrition and the diseases that accompany it.

SOUNDBITE (English) Anthony Lake, Executive Director, UNICEF:
“Nutritional deficiencies kill children, but even more they weaken them, to other diseases – so the children here are receiving treatment, not just for malnutrition, but also with vaccinations, and with immediate medical care for other diseases as well.”

He hopes that his visit to Chad will spread the word that although Chadian families are fighting bravely for their lives and their children’s futures, they desperately need help if they are going to survive.