20 Oct 2011

SRI LANKA / MISSING CHILDREN

Hundreds of children were reported missing during the recent conflict in Sri Lanka. The government and UNICEF are helping to trace these children and to date, they have reunified 47 children with their families, 63 other cases have been verified. UNICEF

Posted at: October 20, 2011 5:09 pm

Duration: 03:26

Available in: SD

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STORY: SRI LANKA / MISSING CHILDREN
TRT: 3:26
SOURCE: UNICEF
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: TAMIL / ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 29 SEPTEMBER 2011, VAVUNIYA, SRI LANKA

SHOTLIST:

1. Various shots, old woman crying
2. Med shot, old woman walking out of her house
3. Various shots, old woman plucking leaves with her daughter-in law
4. Med shot, old woman walking 
5. Med shot, old woman looks at her granddaughter's photo and kisses it
6. Close shot, granddaughter's photo
7. SOUNDBITE (Tamil) Meenadchy Sellthurai, Grandmother:
"My granddaughter was so wonderful, tall, strong and smart, always helping with everything I needed."
8. SOUNDBITE (Tamil), Sarojinidevi Thissaveerasingam, Mother:
"The LTTE took my daughter away. She came back after a few days but they took her away again."
9. Med shot, family sitting in the verandah
10. Close shot, woman crying
11. Med shot, shift focus, old woman behind the leaf
12. Med shot, zoom in, father sitting by the stove
13. Close shot, father's hands
14. Med shot, over the shoulder, Meenadchy and Sarojinidevi look at photographs
15. Close shot, granddaughter's photograph
16. Close shot, Meenadchy Sellthurai crying
17. Med shot, UNICEF staff speaking to Meenadchy Sellthurai and taking notes
18. Close shot, UNICEF staff
19. Close shot, writing notes
20. Med shot, 13 year old walks to the courtyard with her 2 year old brother
21. SOUNDBITE (Tamil), Pushpalatha Puvanendran, 13 years old :
" After my mother died, I was in the bunker with my brother - I came out of the bunker to look for milk powder to feed him. I then got injured from shelling. "
22. Med shot, zoom in, UNICEF Child Protection Officer speaking to Pushpalatha Puvanendran
23. Close shot, Pushpalatha Puvanendran crying
24. SOUNDBITE (English), Manarudeen Shahul Hameed Moulavi, UNICEF Child protection officer:
"It is now dragging and taking so much time to reunify the children even after identification of the children with their relatives - due to the legal process as well as her sister wanted to get a proper shelter in this area. She lost everything now."
25. Close shot, colored blocks
26. Med shot, poster with photographs of missing children
27. Close shot, photos
28. Wide shot, Former Brigadier from the Sri Lankan army looking at photographs
29. Med shot, Former Brigadier pointing at photos
30. Med shot, woman speaking to Former Brigadier
31. Close shot, finger pointing at child's photograph
32. Various shots, Former Brigadier flipping pages, sifting through records of missing children, looking at the files with database and photographs
33. Wide shot, tilt down, board with posters displaying information about missing children
34. Med shot, man holding poster
35. Close shot, finger pointing at poster
36. Close shot, photograph of children re-united with their family
37. Close shot, zoom out, family photograph
38. Wide shot, tilt up, government office
39. SOUNDBYTE (English) Piencia Sarojinidevi, Government Agent, Vavuniya:
"I am very happy to tell the international community even the national community -- we are mandated to look for the missing children, there's a proper institution that was established before even the resettlement started, in December 2009 before people started going back. This is a message for everybody, we are here to address the issues, by parents or relatives, and we are efficient and affective and sensitive in all actions, this unit is not only tracing the children, in other words it's a counseling unit. It's a wonderful achievement."
40. Various shots, Pushpalatha Puvanendran and her brother playing with other children in the courtyard
41. Close shot, boy looking up
42. Med shot, children looking down from the balcony
 
STORYLINE: 
 
No words are needed. No translations. Her face, her gestures speak a language known across the world, a language of pain, of loss.

Yet somehow still of human hope. Bent double at 91 years of age, Meenadchy was left for dead in the chaos of the final stages of Sri Lanka's 27 year war. In peace she longs for one thing: her missing granddaughter.

SOUNDBITE (Tamil) Meenadchy Sellthurai, Grandmother:
"My granddaughter was so wonderful, tall, strong and smart, always helping with everything I needed."

SOUNDBITE (Tamil) Sarojinidevi Thissaveerasingam, Mother:
"The LTTE took my daughter away. She came back after a few days but they took her away again."

The rest of the family was reunited in Manik Farms, a government-run camp for the displaced in 2009. Now they're renting this house until their former home nearby is ready for resettlement.  It's all left a deep mark on the family and they want to put the past behind them. Like so many others here they want to focus now on the living but they cannot until her beloved granddaughter, missing since she was captured by the LTTE in the dying days of the conflict, is found.

The government and UNICEF are helping trace the granddaughter and more than 600 other children reported missing, some in children's homes.

Thirteen year old Pushpa and her 2 year old brother are amongst them.

SOUNDBITE (Tamil) Pushpalatha Puvanendran, 13 years old:
"After my mother died, I was in the bunker with my brother - I came out of the bunker to look for milk powder to feed him. I then got injured from shelling. "

Her father remarried, her stepmother rejected his children and now Pushpa longs to be reunited with her married sister.

SOUNDBITE (English) Manarudeen Shahul Hameed Moulavi, UNICEF Child protection officer:
"It is now dragging and taking so much time to reunify the children even after identification of the children with their relatives - due to the legal process as well as her sister wanted to get a proper shelter in this area. She lost everything now."

To date the tracing unit has reunified 47 children with their families, 63 other cases have been verified and will soon be home with their families. Children with photographs and birth certificates are more easily traced. This former Brigadier from the Sri Lankan army once in charge of one of the camps for the displaced in 2009, is now playing a leading role in helping families find their loved ones. By sifting through records at children's homes and gathering information at camps for the displaced, a database of 676 children including babies, little boys and girls and teenagers has been set up since 2009.

Setting up a hotline and putting up posters triggered an immediate response. One child was reunited with her delighted family the first day the posters appeared. Happy endings like these have given a boost to the unit and the government agency responsible is pleased with progress.

SOUNDBITE (English)Mrs Piencia Sarojinidevi, Government Agent, Vavuniya:
"I am very happy to tell the international community even the national community -- we are mandated to look for the missing children, there's a proper institution that was established before even the resettlement started, in December2009 before people started going back. This is a message for everybody, we are here to address the issues, by parents or relatives, and we are efficient and affective and sensitive in all actions, this unit is not only tracing the children, in other words it's a counseling unit. It's a wonderful achievement."

Throughout the north the past is written on pockmarked walls, warning signs of uncleared landmines still mark parts of the jungle. Wrecked and abandoned homes and schools stand testimony to fierce fighting. But in their shadow new infrastructure is emerging -- modern clinics and hospitals; fresh new schools and new roads are being built for a generation that the country hopes will start looking forward to a future of real unity.