27 Jul 2009

MADAGASCAR / CLIMATE CHANGE

A quiet crisis caused by climate change is playing itself out on the island of Madagascar. For the last two years the rains have failed, and once mighty rivers have dried to a trickle and crops have died. People here, especially children, have begun to starve. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today urged countries rich and poor to take practical steps to deal with the impact of global warming. UNICEF

Posted at: July 27, 2009 5:27 pm

Duration: 02:42

Available in: SD

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STORY: MADAGASCAR / CLIMATE CHANGE
TRT:  2.42
SOURCE: UNICEF
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: MALAGASY/ NATS

DATELINE: 13-15 JULY 2009, SOUTH MADAGASCAR

SHOTLIST:

1.	Wide shot, people at clinic
2.	Med shot, children and mother
3.	Med shot, boy carrying manioc
4.	Pan left, riverbed
5.	Med shot, pull focus, cactus to crops
6.	Wide shot, mother and kids
7.	Tilt up, malnourished child
8.	Pan right, cactus to homestead
9.	Med shot, farmer grinding
10.	Wide shot, daughter playing
11.	SOUNDBITE (Malagasy) Liatinahie, Farmer and Mother:
"I had seeds and planted sweet potatoes but because there was no rain, they dried up, I noticed my daughter was getting thinner but there was no food and when she got even thinner I took her to the health centre." 
12.	Pan left, landscape to field
13.	Close up, dying crops
14.	Wide shot, mothers and children at clinic
15.	Med shot, mother and child
16.	SOUNDBITE (Malagasy) Tianason Sombason Mandanaina, Nurse:
"Around eighty percent of children under five in this area are affected by malnutrition; seventy percent suffer from acute severe malnutrition and ten percent from moderate malnutrition". 
17.	Zoom out, weighing child to crowd
18.	Med shot, weighing child
19.	Close up, scale
20.	Wide shot, measuring arm
21.	Close up, measuring arm
22.	Close up, examining foot
23.	Close up, child with thermometer
24.	Tilt down, distributing plumpy nut
25.	Wide shot, leaving clinic
26.	Tilt up, walking away
27.	SOUNDBITE (Malagasy) Tianason Sombason Mandanaina, Nurse:
"There is a more long term impact and you can see it in pre-school children that have been malnourished, they are always tired and when they reach school age they struggle to keep up."
28.	Med shot, pouring rice
29.	Close up, pouring rice and lentils
30.	Wide shot, walking to table
31.	Wide shot, pan, field
32.	Med shot, boy
33.	Wide shot, boy farming
34.	Zoom out dry riverbed

STORYLINE:

As world attention shifts towards environmental issues, a quiet crisis caused by climate change is playing itself out on the island of Madagascar.

The south of the country has always been dry, but biannual rains meant farmers here could plant and harvest their crops twice a year, enough to see them and their families through the lean seasons. But for the last two years those rains have failed. Once mighty rivers have run dry and crops have died. People here, especially children, have begun to starve.

Liatinahie and her husband are farmers, but when their crops failed, they began to run out of food. They have ten children but it was their youngest daughter who was hardest hit, she grew thin and weak.

SOUNDBITE (Malagasy) Liatinahie, Farmer and Mother:
"I had seeds and planted sweet potatoes but because there was no rain, they dried up, I noticed my daughter was getting thinner but there was no food and when she got even thinner I took her to the health centre."

Her story is one of many; almost every farmer in the three drought affected regions has lost their crops.

In the last 20 years, the average annual rainfall here has fallen from 111 ml to a mere 27.5; droughts used to be the exception, occurring maybe once every ten years, now they're the norm. So too is malnutrition; almost every child at every health centre is malnourished

SOUNDBITE (Malagasy) Tianason Sombason Mandanaina, Nurse:
"Around eighty percent of children under five in this area are affected by malnutrition; seventy percent suffer from acute severe malnutrition and ten percent from moderate malnutrition".

But UNICEF, the World Food Programme, various non-governmental organizations, the national nutrition office and the Malagasy Ministry of Health have been hard at work to tackle the crisis. Through an early warning system and with the help of community volunteers who go door to door, an estimated eighty percent of malnourished children in the three drought-affected regions have been reached.

They are brought to health centers where they are weighed and measured. Each child is then examined and if needed, given doses of fortified ready to use therapeutic food.

After one and a half months of treatment, Liatinahie's daughter is chubbier and more energetic; even so it will be another month and half before she is fully recovered. For some, the effects last far longer.

SOUNDBITE (Malagasy) Tianason Sombason Mandanaina, Nurse:
"There is a more long term impact and you can see it in pre-school children that have been malnourished, they are always tired and when they reach school age they struggle to keep up."

To ensure that malnourished children do recover and that their doses of ready to use therapeutic food are not shared with healthier siblings; families of malnourished children are also supported with food supplies.

A few recent rains have provided some respite for farmers, but their beleaguered supplies won't see them through the next six months when the next rains are due, if they come at all. Through climate change, the drought and malnutrition crisis in Madagascar is threatening to become the status quo and malnutrition a way of life.

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