28 Oct 2010

AZERBAIJAN / INFRASTRUCTURE

While Azerbaijan’s capital Baku has highways and high rises, the country’s rural residents are working hard to improve their modest infrastructure. WORLD BANK

Posted at: October 28, 2010 10:45 am

Duration: 02:27

Available in: SD

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Full script

STORY: AZERBAIJAN / INFRASTRUCTURE
TRT: 2.27
SOURCE: WORLD BANK
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / AZERI/ NATS

DATELINE: APRIL 2010, AZERBAIJAN

SHOTLIST:

APRIL 2010, AZERBAIJAN

1. Med shot, patient in rural clinic with health worker
2. Wide shot, exterior rural clinic 
3. Wide shot, door clinic
4. Med shot, schoolchildren leaving other half clinic, the library
5. Wide shot, old man walking
6. Med shot, bare clinic shelf
7. Wide shot, clinic bed
8. SOUNDBITE (Azeri) Xoshgadam Samedova, Patient:
"I come a lot because I have bad kidneys and high blood pressure."
9. Wide shot, kid with donkey cart on road outside clinic
10. Med shot, health workers walk to new clinic, enter building
11. Med shot, new sink in new clinic
12. SOUNDBITE (Azeri) Zarifa Hasanova, Health Worker: 
"It will be a lot more comfortable for patients. The village is very excited."
13. Wide shot, woman washing dishes in stream 
14. Various shot, men building school
15. Wide shot, woman walking by road in construction
16. Wide shot, kids leaving school
17. Med shot, onion vendor on way to market
18. Wide shot, men at market
19. SOUNDBITE (Azeri) Produce Vendor:
"And it's a lot faster now, too. It takes twenty minutes instead of forty."
20. Various shots, community meeting
21. SOUNDBITE (Azeri) Almaz Bayramova, Council Member:  
"This map makes sure the road is fixed past the houses of those who lost family members in the war, widows, and Afghan Veterans."
22. Wide shot, strawberry farmer turning over dirt
23. Close up, strawberry plant 
24. Wide shot, generator for irrigation system
25. Wide shot, irrigation channel from river
26. Wide shot, strawberry farmer at irrigation channel
27. Various shots, strawberry farmer's wife making tea
28. Wide shot, strawberry farmer's children outside house, 
29. Wide shot, house exterior
30. SOUNDBITE (Azeri) Sultan Akberov, Strawberry Farmer:
"With my gains, I will fix up my house for my family."
31. Wide shot, farmers working fields
32. Wide shot, shepherds

STORYLINE:

Health worker Zarifa Hasanova sees patients in an old barn. It has no waiting room, no heat, water or privacy. The village library is right across the aisle.

Zarifa sees people from neighbouring villages, too, upwards of twenty people a day, with a meagre supply of medicines and basic equipment.

SOUNDBITE (Azeri) Xoshgadam Samedova, patient:
"I come a lot because I have bad kidneys and high blood pressure."

The closest hospital is far away over bad roads, and expensive.

Steps away is a new clinic funded by a project supported by the World Bank. In a few weeks, patients will be treated in three gleaming examination rooms with running water and new equipment that's on its way.

SOUNDBITE (Azeri) Zarifa Hasanova, health worker: 
"It will be a lot more comfortable for patients. The village is very excited."

Hundreds of small Azeri communities have applied for and received grants to build or fix their rural infrastructure.

Some villages update their clinic. Others build a new school.

Many opt for a new road. Not an expensive paved road, but a plain gravel one for doctors and teachers to get in, villagers to get out, produce to reach market.

Taxi drivers once charged extra to travel the old road from Lak village to the closest market because deep ruts damaged their cars.  Now it costs this farmer four manat, half the old price

SOUNDBITE (Azeri) produce vendor:
"And it's a lot faster now, too. It takes twenty minutes instead of forty."

Communities apply for grants from a fund that also pays for workshops so villagers can identify what project is most important for their village, learn to manage contracts and contractors. They chip in with cash and labor. Thinking together and pulling together builds communities.

SOUNDBITE (Azeri) Almaz Bayramova, Council member:  
"This map makes sure the road is fixed past the houses of those who lost family members in the war, widows, and Afghan Veterans."

Most of the farmers in this village make money selling strawberries.  They bought a new generator and fixed power lines that fuel their irrigation system.

Because they now have reliable water for their crop, many plant larger areas. Sultan Akberov's patch is three times what it was.

His wife wants to use any extra profits they will make to buy livestock to have milk for her two boys. Sultan wants to put them into the house in which he was born.

SOUNDBITE (Azeri) Sultan Akberov, strawberry farmer:
"With my gains, I will fix up my house for my family."

Half a million Azeri villagers have made their villages better places to live and have improved their lives with better roads and irrigation, schools and clinics.