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STORY: SOUTH SUDAN / WHEELCHAIR BASKETBALL
TRT: 4:09
SOURCE: UNMISS
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 4 APRIL 2012, JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN
4 APRIL 2012, JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN
1. Wide shot, basketball game on pitch and students watching
2. Various shots, GatluakKualLuak dribbling and passing ball
4. Various shots, players on pitch going after ball
5. Close up, wheels
6. Pan left, GatluakKualLuak scoring with a two-hand backhand shot
7. SOUNDBITE (English) GatluakKualLuak, wheelchair basketball player and Chairperson of South Sudan Wheelchair Association:
“I don’t have to be tall – I don’t have to be whatever, but just only that I have to be very confident in what I am doing and I am very confident on my own wheelchair because my wheelchair is my leg, my wheelchair is my tallness, my feet, my whatever. So just being confident and what I really think of myself is that I am showing people that I can do it. I am very sure as you watched today I will be able to play with the person who thinks he can play basket with his two legs. The way he runs is the way I run. The same court I use - they use the same court we use. It cannot be reduced and it cannot be added.”
8. Various shots, game and attempts to score
9. Med shot, ball going through net
10. Pan left, students cheering in background and team-mates congratulating each other
11. Wide shot, half-time and players taking a break
12. Various shots, GatluakKual
13. Cutaway, players in wheelchairs
14. SOUNDBITE (English) GatluakKualLuak, wheelchair basketball player and Chairperson of South Sudan Wheelchair Association:
“Let us take something new and go ahead with our development. Enjoy the nation without any discrimination. Don’t tell me to go away because I came with crutches in your office. Don’t tell me to go away because I came to ask you when you are playing – let me also play. Don’t chase me away, let us cooperate. Let us develop this nation together.”
15. Various shots, game in progress
17. Various shots, player scoring and being cheered
18. Med shot, students holding banner with Mine Awareness theme “On April 4th Lend Your Leg”
18. SOUNDBITE (English) JurkucBarach, Chairperson of South Sudan Mine-Action Authority:
“We want to show that landmines are the bad enemies of the people. And therefore, according to the Ottawa Convention signed in 1997 that these landmines are banned and should not be used – should not be given to a third person, should not be produced and the stock you have must have to be destroyed.”
19. Various shots, wheelchairs at play
20. Tilt up, player going to score to net
Braving Juba’s mid-day heat, GatluakKual and a team of landmine victims wheeled across a pitch playing basketball amid the cheer of students at a primary school in South Sudan’s capital.
With sweat dripping down their foreheads, they dribbled, and scored … and the students cheered both teams equally. There were no favourites.
Half of those playing in today’s match are land-mine victims, who were playing as part of raising awareness on landmines in South Sudan. This year’s theme for International Landmine Awareness Day is “lend your leg “– the players no doubt lay their prosthetic limbs aside for a game that ended in a score of 14-11 goals.
Thirty-year-old Gatluak lost his foot when he stepped on a landmine in 1999 – he was 13 years old and already two years into a military career. Later he was wounded by bullets and learned how to survive without the rest of his leg.
SOUNDBITE (English) GatluakKualLuak, wheelchair basketball player and Chairperson of South Sudan Wheelchair Association:
“I don’t have to be tall – I don’t have to be whatever, but just only that I have to be very confident in what I am doing and I am very confident on my own wheelchair because my wheelchair is my leg, my wheelchair is my tallness, my feet, my whatever. So just being confident and what I really think of myself is that I am showing people that I can do it. I am very sure as you watched today I will be able to play with the person who thinks he can play basket with his two legs. The way he runs is the way I run. The same court I use - they use the same court we use. It cannot be reduced and it cannot be added.”
Now a professional basketball trainer for people with disabilities, Gatluak’s infectious energy is felt across the pitch and his resolve to play professional basketball grows stronger with every odd score he manages.
Before the referendum, the one-footed Gatluak says he rallied his family and friends to each shoot one last bullet for peace – their referendum votes. He now asks all youth to work together as a united force for the reconciliation of South Sudan.
SOUNDBITE (English) GatluakKualLuak, wheelchair basketball player and Chairperson of South Sudan Wheelchair Association:
“Let us take something new and go ahead with our development. Enjoy the nation without any discrimination. Don’t tell me to go away because I came with crutches in your office. Don’t tell me to go away because I came to ask you when you are playing – let me also play. Don’t chase me away, let us cooperate. Let us develop this nation together.”
Chairperson of South Sudan Mine-Action Authority, JurkucBarach who was at the game said that disability is not inability, adding that he feared that the current unrest in some parts of the country could result in more mines being laid.
SOUNDBITE (English) JurkucBarach, Chairperson of South Sudan Mine-Action Authority:
“We want to show that landmines are the bad enemies of the people. And therefore, according to the Ottawa Convention signed in 1997 that these landmines are banned and should not be used – should not be given to a third person, should not be produced and the stock you have must have to be destroyed.”
Barach says that intensive mine awareness countrywide is important, and with landmine survivors like Gatluak, who continue to involve themselves in more mine risk education through various events and games, it is hoped that South Sudan’s population will understand the risk of dangers posed by landmines.
