TURKEY / SYRIAN CHILDREN HEALTH

Illness runs rampant among Syrian children sheltering at the Bab al Salama camp, along the Turkish border. But the medical care available cannot keep pace. UNICEF 

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:02:20
• Production Date: 1 April 2013
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS CHILDREN'S FUND - UNICEF
• Subject Topical: HUMANITARIAN RELIEF; REFUGEES; DISPLACED PERSONS
• Geographic Subject: SYRIA; TURKEY
• MAMS Id: U130401d

Description

STORY: TURKEY / SYRIAN CHILDREN HEALTH
TRT: 2.20
SOURCE: UNICEF
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 24 MARCH 2013, BAB AL SALAMA, SYRIA

Shotlist

1. Wide shot, tent and border flags
2. Wide shot, refugee Khola Bakkor sitting with family in tent
3. Close up, her daughter Waffa Bakkor’s hands
4. Close up, Waffa Bakkor face
5. Wide shot, children walking through camp
6. Med shot, Dr. Baraa al Nasser working at desk
7. Close up, Nasser’s hand, writing
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Baraa al Nasser, Medical Doctor:
“The main problem for the children in the camp about my speciality as a doctor is maybe dermatological problems. Maybe Leishmania, lice, scabies, fungal infection and other dermatological problems because there are no good baths, no water sanitation, no health education also.”
9. Med shot, mother holding crying child
10. Med shot, ‘no weapons’ sign on the clinic door
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Baraa al Nasser, Medical Doctor:
“You can imagine if you are 5 years old and listen to this big amount of explosions, rockets, bullets, it makes you have fear. Here in Aleppo the most scaring is from airplanes. The sound of airplanes now for children is very invasive. If you hear airplanes come, all the children will run away to Turkish border, ok? They are afraid.”
12. Med shot, child carrying a bucket
13. Wide shot, camp
14. Med shot, child walking through camp
15. Wide Pan shot, child walking with a pot on his head
16. Various shots, people queuing for mattresses outside camp office
17. Med shot, child holding bread
18. Wide shot, child
19. Med shot, children
20. Wide shot, water tank
21. Med shot, children next to water tank
22. Close up, boy’s face
23. Close up, Girls face

Storyline

In Bab al Salama Camp, on the Turkey Syria border, Khola Bakkor sits with her family in the tent they’ve sheltered in for seven long months. Her 14-year-old daughter Waffa suffers from growth hormone deficiency, and her medication was destroyed when their house in Aleppo was bombed.

Now Khola can’t find the drugs her daughter needs, meaning she hasn’t been growing properly for the last seven months.

Of the 12,000 refugees in this camp, 60 percent are children and between 5 and 10 children sleep in each tent.

Dr. Baraa al Nasser, who works for an NGO, said a lack of medication, poor sanitation, insufficient washing facilities and overcrowding were also having a terrible effect on the health of the children.

SOUNDBITE (English) Baraa al Nasser, Medical Doctor:
“The main problem for the children in the camp about my speciality as a doctor is maybe dermatological problems. Maybe Leishmania, lice, scabies, fungal infection and other dermatological problems because there are no good baths, no water sanitation, no health education also.”

Chest and urinary tract infections, he noted, were also common and on average the children here are sick for 10 days out of each month.

Nasser also said that there was widespread bedwetting among children as old as 15 - to him, a symptom of the terror they’ve endured.

SOUNDBITE (English) Baraa al Nasser, Medical Doctor:
“You can imagine if you are 5 years old and listen to this big amount of explosions, rockets, bullets, it makes you have fear. Here in Aleppo the most scaring is from airplanes. The sound of airplanes now for children is very invasive. If you hear airplanes come, all the children will run away to Turkish border, ok? They are afraid.”

There is a school here, but Camp authorities told us that currently only 40 percent of the children are mentally and physically well enough to attend.

While conditions in the camps around the region are tough, inside Syria itself, the intensifying conflict is causing a humanitarian crisis of ever expanding proportions. According to UN estimates, at least 4 million people in Syria are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. At least half of them are children.

UNICEF and partners are providing humanitarian assistance to different parts of Syria, but more access is needed to reach all those in need.

Working with partners, UNICEF has provided 4 million people with access to drinking and domestic water in Syria. 1.3 million children have been vaccinated against measles. More than 75,000 children have been enrolled in learning programmes.

But lack of funds is severely hampering the aid effort. UNICEF has received only 20 percent of the funds it needs. Without this money, it will be difficult to reach out further to Syrian children and families, and some life-saving activities will have to stop.