NIGER/ REFUGEE EDUCATION

About 50,000 Malian refugees have sought shelter in Niger because of violence in their own country. UNICEF

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:01:53
• Production Date: 6 March 2013
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS CHILDREN'S FUND - UNICEF
• Subject Topical: EDUCATION; REFUGEES; DISPLACED PERSONS
• Geographic Subject: MALI; NIGER
• MAMS Id: U130306f

Description

STORY: NIGER/EDUCATION
TRT: 1.53
SOURCE: UNICEF
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: FRENCH/NATS

DATELINE: 13 FEBRUARY 2013, MANGAIZE REFUGEE CAMP, NIGER

Shotlist

1. Wide shot, refugee camp
2. Wide shot, children outside tent school
3. Wide shot, refugee camp
4. Various, children in class
5. SOUNDBITE (French) Ag Bonjoly Aklinine, Deputy President of Mangaize’s Refugee Committee:
“These children go to school because education is the basis of their future. And these children are the future of our country.”
6. Medium shot, school supplies being handed out
7. Medium shot, boy receives school supplies
8. Various, children in tent school
9. Various, children in school
10. Various, Malians doing traditional dancing and singing
11. SOUNDBITE (French) Abou Zeid, Protection Officer, Plan International:
“This helps the children to remain connected with their own culture, so that they don’t forget, even if they have been moved away, to keep the same ideas.”
12. Various, children in school

Storyline

It’s the first day of primary school for Malian children in the Mangaize refugee camp in Niger.

About 50,000 refugees have sought shelter in Niger because of violence in their own country.

Although conditions are difficult, school provides a welcome return to normalcy for these young ones.

SOUNDBITE (French) Ag Bonjoly Aklinine, Deputy President of Mangaize’s Refugee Committee:
“These children go to school because education is the basis of their future. And these children are the future of our country.”

UNICEF and its partner, Plan International, have provided 11 tent classrooms and school supplies.

This school, which opened five months ago, has more than 800 students … and more continue to arrive every day.

Next door at the middle school, the children take part in an English lesson. But an important part of the programme is providing safe spaces to ensure that the children remain connected with the country they’ve been forced to leave.

SOUNDBITE (French) Abou Zeid, Protection Officer, Plan International:
“This helps the children to remain connected with their own culture, so that they don’t forget, even if they have been moved away, to keep the same ideas.”

More than 4,700 refugee children are enrolled in primary schools throughout the camps, but Niger is one of the poorest countries in the world and the needs remain great.