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STORY: SYRIA / HOMS EVACUATION UPDATE
TRT: 2.41
SOURCE: UNHCR
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ARABIC / NATS
DATELINE: 9, 13 FEBRUARY, 2014, HOMS, SYRIA
9, 13 FEBRUARY 2014, HOMS, SYRIA
1. Various shots, SARC volunteers loading aid onto truck
2. Close up, boxes full of cooking oil
3. Med shot, SARC volunteers passing flower bags to load onto trucks
4. Med shot, SARC employee arranging flower on top of trailer
5. Various shots, Homs residents offloading boxes of aid
6. Various shots, Homs residents offloading flower bags
7. Med shot, mother carrying her child get off ambulance with UN employee after evacuating Homs
8. Med shot, evacuees getting off coach after leaving Homs
9. Pan right, old man walking on clutches heads to registration centre
10. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Unidentified Homs’ resident:
“The situation inside was very difficult and desperate, there was very little food, we were eating leftover wheat, the stuff we used to throw out before, and any plants that naturally grow, in addition to anything we can grow ourselves and leftovers of anything we can find, anything to just keep us alive."
11. Med Evacuees getting off coach
12. Pan right, man and child evacuee walking with UN staff
13. Pan right, man in wheelchair being pushed by aid workers
14. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Unidentified Homs’ resident:
"Lack of food and medicine inside Homs really affected our lives. The shortages were indescribable. We were immobilized and had no energy to do anything. We were only able to give the body maybe less than 10 percent of what it needed to function properly. We were short on many things, proteins, sugary foods, we were eating plants, just surviving in the most basic way."
15. Wide shot, residents of Homs offloading supplies, gun fire heard in background
9 FEBRUARY 2014, HOMS, SYRIA
16. Wide shot, destruction in Homs
Working under challenging conditions, UN agencies and partner organisations continued aid deliveries into the old city of Homs this week.
Six trucks went in on Thursday carrying food, medicine and vaccinations for children. In a week, enough food was brought in to sustain 2,500 people for a month.
All this was made possible by an extension of the ceasefire.
According to the governor of Homs, it will allow operations to continue into the weekend. Once in, the aid is distributed with the help of local residents.
But some are choosing to just leave after a year and a half under siege. More than 1,300 people have been evacuated so far. Most are in shocking state; hungry, extremely weak and in very poor health.
A Homs resident, who didn’t want to be named, is now staying with friend in a village outside Homs.
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Unidentified Homs’ resident:
“The situation inside was very difficult and desperate, there was very little food, we were eating leftover wheat, the stuff we used to throw out before, and any plants that naturally grow, in addition to anything we can grow ourselves and leftovers of anything we can find, anything to just keep us alive."
More civilians are expected to flee if the ceasefire continues. And aid organisations are calling for more time to reach those inside.
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Unidentified Homs’ resident:
"Lack of food and medicine inside Homs really affected our lives. The shortages were indescribable. We were immobilized and had no energy to do anything. We were only able to give the body maybe less than 10 percent of what it needed to function properly. We were short on many things, proteins, sugary foods; we were eating plants, just surviving in the most basic way."
UN estimates there to be a quarter of a million Syrians living in other besieged communities like Homs and another three million are in hard to reach areas across Syria.
The calls are for urgent and greater access to reach them before it’s too late.
The effort in Homs has been disrupted repeatedly; trucks belonging to the Syrian Arab Red Crescent were targeted by mortar and rifle fire on Saturday. But in recent days the deliveries have been allowed to continue.
