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STORY: UN / EBOLA CHILDREN
TRT: 3.10
SOURCE: UNIFEED – UNTV / UNICEF
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGAUGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 17 OCTOBER 2014, NEW YORK CITY / RECENT
RECENT – WEST POINT, MONROVIA, LIBERIA
1. Tilt down, Liberian flag in front of government building
2. Wide shot, people walking in town
17 OCTOBER 2014, NEW YORK CITY
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Sarah Crowe, Crisis Communications Chief UNICEF:
“Children are deeply distressed from having seen things that even adults find difficult to understand. People in astronaut suits, looking like crop sprayers, coming to take sick people away, or their parents even worse; so you have that deep psychological impact, but also of course, children are themselves dying but not in great numbers fortunately, but we do see every few weeks as the numbers of people are falling ill and dying from Ebola, the numbers of orphans are rising.”
RECENT – WEST POINT, MONROVIA, LIBERIA
4. Med shot, Crowe and volunteers listening to local woman
17 OCTOBER 2014, NEW YORK CITY
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Sarah Crowe, Crisis Communications Chief UNICEF:
“Huge efforts are being put into support for orphans and taking care of children in the interim care centres where they are for 21 days, observed, cared for, largely by survivors who have a level of immunity, that they can touch and give a human care that children so desperately need in a situation like this.”
RECENT – WEST POINT, MONROVIA, LIBERIA
6. Med shot, child
17 OCTOBER 2014, NEW YORK CITY
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Sarah Crowe, Crisis Communications Chief UNICEF:
“Fear can be paralyzing it’s not a useful emotion to support an intervention like this. Our message is very clearly that we can operate on the ground if we take the right precautions. We are there, we are doing, all of the agencies that are operating are doing an extraordinary job, but they need support. The only way to stop Ebola spreading is to support the efforts on the ground, and I am stunned that we are not seeing those efforts really multiply globally. The efforts are not keeping up with the disease.”
RECENT – WEST POINT, MONROVIA, LIBERIA
8. Pan right, group of volunteers walking in town
17 OCTOBER 2014, NEW YORK CITY
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Sarah Crowe, Crisis Communications Chief UNICEF:
“Key are of UNICEF’s work is social mobilization, education, going door to door, training up to people, an army of volunteers, paid volunteers as well; working with this network of 11,000 teachers in the case of Liberia, with young girls, teenage girls in West Point in Monrovia, right throughout the country and really scaling up the efforts to get the message out.”
RECENT – WEST POINT, MONROVIA, LIBERIA
10. Wide shot, group of volunteers walking in town
17 OCTOBER 2014, NEW YORK CITY
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Sarah Crowe, Crisis Communications Chief UNICEF:
“The way in which Ebola has affected people is so profound, because it’s changed the way they live their lives; it’s changed the way they mourn their dead; and it’s changed the way people die. It’s a terrible undignified death.”
RECENT – WEST POINT, MONROVIA, LIBERIA
12. Wide shot, Crowe and a group of volunteers walking in town
17 OCTOBER 2014, NEW YORK CITY
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Sarah Crowe, Crisis Communications Chief UNICEF:
“We can operate on the ground. We are operating on the ground. We are sprinting to keep ahead of this extraordinary epidemic. But the only way to stop Ebola spreading is to support the efforts on the ground. We cannot be crushed by this disease and we will not. We are doing everything we can to get ahead of it.”
RECENT – WEST POINT, MONROVIA, LIBERIA
14. Wide shot, reverse view of Crowe and a group of volunteers walking in town
Upon her return from Liberia, UNICEF’s Crisis Communications Chief, Sarah Crowe, today (17 Oct) said that although children are not dying in great numbers “the numbers of orphans are rising.”
Crowe said children in the affected countries are “deeply distressed from having seen things that even adults find difficult to understand; people in astronaut suits, looking like crop sprayers, coming to take sick people away, or their parents even worse; so you have that deep psychological impact.”
UNICEF estimates that 8.5 million children and young people live in affected areas. Since the first days of the outbreak, UNICEF has been working throughout the region—in Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Senegal and Sierra Leone—to prevent further spread of the Ebola virus, distributing essential hygiene supplies and letting families know how they can protect themselves.
The UNICEF official said “huge efforts are being put into support for orphans and taking care of children in the interim care centres where they are for 21 days, observed, cared for, largely by survivors who have a level of immunity, that they can touch and give a human care that children so desperately need in a situation like this.”
Since the outbreak was declared, UNICEF and its partners have reached at least 5.5 million people in West Africa.
Crowe spoke of the stigma and fear attached to the disease. She said “fear can be paralyzing it’s not a useful emotion to support an intervention like this. Our message is very clearly that we can operate on the ground if we take the right precautions.”
She stressed that “the only way to stop Ebola spreading is to support the efforts on the ground” and said she was “stunned that we are not seeing those efforts really multiply globally. The efforts are not keeping up with the disease.”
UNICEF is on the ground in all affected countries. Moving forward on a number of fronts, UNICEF and partners are reaching out to help protect children from Ebola with both supplies and information.
Medical workers are being trained to work with patients and social workers are being trained to spread life-saving information and stop the spread of misinformation in their countries.
Crowe said “key are of UNICEF’s work is social mobilization, education, going door to door, training up to people, an army of volunteers, paid volunteers as well; working with this network of 11,000 teachers in the case of Liberia, with young girls, teenage girls in West Point in Monrovia, right throughout the country and really scaling up the efforts to get the message out.”
In Liberia, UNICEF is helping the government train 400 additional mental health and social workers. UNICEF is also working with local authorities in the most affected counties to help strengthen family and community support to children affected by Ebola and provide care to those who have been rejected by their communities or whose families have died.
Crowe said “the way in which Ebola has affected people is so profound, because it’s changed the way they live their lives; it’s changed the way they mourn their dead; and it’s changed the way people die. It’s a terrible undignified death.”
She said “we cannot be crushed by this disease and we will not. We are doing everything we can to get ahead of it.”
Over the next 6 months more than 2,500 Ebola survivors – now immune to the disease – will be trained in Sierra Leone to provide care and support to quarantined children in treatment centres.
UNICEF is also working with partners to reunite separated children with their families through an extensive family tracing network across the country which also provides children with psychosocial support.
