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BOSINA / ROMA TEEN PREGNANCY SWOP ADVANCER
STORY: BOSNIA / ROMA TEEN PREGNANCY ADVANCER
TRT:2:42
SOURCE: UNFPA
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH/BOSNIAN/NATS
DATELINE: SEPTEMBER 2013, VISOKO, BOSNIA, RECENT, ETHIOPIA
SEPTEMBER 2013, VISOKO, BOSNIA
1. Med shot, girls changing babies’ diapers
2. Med shot, baby during diaper changing
3. Wide shot, girls changing babies’ diapers
4. Med shot, Sabrina Zahirovic coddling her child
5. SOUNDBITE(Bosnian) Arnela Zahirovic, 18,teen mother:
“I wanted to finish school and become a hairdresser,but my wishes never came true.”
6. SOUNDBITE(Bosnian) Sabrina Zahirovic, 18, teen mother:
“ I wanted to finish school, establish my own life, get a job, have my own apartment, but my parents couldn’t afford to help me and everything fell apart.”
7. Med shot, Arnela sitting with her baby
8. Close up, Arnela feeding her baby
RECENT - XX, ETHIOPIA
9. SOUNDBITE(English)Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, UNFPA Executive Director:
“To put the responsibility and the onus on the girl, it’s actually unfair because they start off being disadvantaged anyways in the first instance.”
10. SOUNDBITE (English), Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, UNFPA Executive Director: “And somebody else writes the narrative for women and for girls. Somebody else determines what rights a girl has. Somebody else is the one who’s the gatekeeper for her to be able to access even the very basic issues in life: education, health services, access to information.”
SEPTEMBER 2013, VISOKO, BOSNIA
11. Close up, baby being fed, pans to mother.
RECENT - XX, ETHIOPIA
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, UNFPA Executive Director:
“The most important human development intervention that will stop this is education of the girl-child.”
SEPTEMBER 2013, VISOKO, BOSNIA
13.Close up, Melina Zahirovic, Director, NGO Roma Youth Initiative typing
14.Med shot, Arnela & Sabrina opening door
15.Med shot, Arnela & Sabrina entering the NGO
16. SOUNDBITE (English) Melina Halilovic, Director, NGO Roma Youth Initiative, Be My Friend, Visoko:
“For example, success for me is when children from our workshop say to us: 'We are going to school now'. I think this is the major success for me.”
17.SOUNDBITE (English) Melina Halilovic, Director, NGO Roma Youth Initiative, Be My Friend, Visoko:
“And I'm happy when they come to us and say they are going to school now. I think this is the major success for us. For all of us.”
18.Close up, Melina playing with her pen
19. Med shot, Arnela cradling her baby at desk
20. Wide shot, Melina working with Arnela and Sabrina
RECENT - XX ETHIOPIA
21. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, UNFPA Executive Director:
“How can we, as a global community accept, that a child of 14 should be a mother? It’s a violation of her fundamental human rights and we must not allow that to happen.”
Sabrina and Arnela Zahirovic were both teenagers when their lives would change drastically. The two, now sisters-in-law from the same Roma family, were married and became mothers before turning 18 and had to drop put of school.
A fate not uncommon for Roma women, where almost half of them are married before they reach 18 and nearly one third of them become pregnant while still adolescents. Getting pregnant as a girl can end her education, diminish her job prospects, and keep her form becoming a productive member of society. Something Arnela knows all too well.
SOUNDBITE (Bosnian), Arnela Zahirovic, 18, Teen mother: “I wanted to finish school and become a hairdresser. But my wishes never came true.”
Her sister-in-law, Sabrina, also felt her future evaporate.
SOUNDBITE (Bosnian), Sabrina Zahirovic, 18, Teen mother: “I wanted to finish school and everything, of course, find a job, to have my own place to live, an apartment. My parents couldn't afford to help me or anything but everything fell into the water on this fear that none of it will happen.”
Countries have often tried to fight adolescent pregnancy by changing a girl’s behavior. Almost as if saying that if a girl becomes pregnant it’s her fault. Something that Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, the Executive Director of United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA, says needs to change
SOUNDBITE (English), Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, UNFPA Executive Director: “To put the responsibility and the onus on the girl, it’s actually unfair because they start off being disadvantaged anyways in the first instance.”
SOUNDBITE (English), Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, UNFPA Executive Director: “And somebody else writes the narrative for women and for girls. Somebody else determines what rights a girl has. Somebody else is the one who’s the gatekeeper for her to be able to access even the very basic issues in life: education, health services, access to information.”
UNFPA has just published 2013 State of the World Population Report focusing on adolescent mothers. Every year 7.3 million girls under the age of 18 give birth in developing countries and the number of pregnancies is even higher. 2 million of these births occur when the girls are under 15 years old.
So simply trying to change a girl’s mindset about pregnancy ignores the fact that adolescents are vulnerable and more needs to be done to support them in taking charge of their own lives.
SOUNDBITE (English), Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, UNFPA Executive Director: “The most important human development intervention that will stop this is education of the girl-child.”
The numbers back up Osotimehin. According to UNFPA, girls with no education are three times more likely to marry or enter into union before age 18 as those with a secondary or higher education.
One woman working to keep Roma girls in school is 26-year-old Malina Halilovic. Orphaned at the age of 15 when her parents died, she was left her to take care of her sister. Halilovic made the decision to finish her schooling and work with young Roma women and girls like Sabrina and Armela to improve their lives with her NGO, “Roma Youth Initiative / Be My Friend”.
SOUNDBITE (English) Melina Halilovic, Director, NGO Roma Youth Initiative / Be My Friend, Visoko: “For example, success for me is when children from our workshop say to us: 'We are going to school now'. I think this is the major success for me.”
SOUNDBITE (English) Melina Halilovic, Director, NGO Roma Youth Initiative / Be My Friend, Visoko: “And I'm happy when they come to us and say they are going to school now. I think this is the major success for us. For all of us.”
And if more is not done to help give adolescent girls the power to choose, by the year 2030, 39.4 million adolescent girls will have given birth in developing countries. Up 23 percent from 2010. Something that Osotimehin finds unacceptable.
SOUNDBITE (English), Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, UNFPA Executive Director: “How can we, as a global community accept, that a child of 14 should be a mother? It’s a violation of her fundamental human rights and we must not allow that to happen.”
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