3 Dec 2011

GHANA / LIBERIAN REFUGEES

Since 2007 the UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) has been helping train refugees, working with FAO and UNHCR as UN Joint Program. For Liberian refugees who’ve stayed in Ghana or gone home to Liberia, becoming self-reliant has transformed their lives. From devastation and conflict, they’ve found the way ahead to human security and peace. UNIDO

Posted at: December 3, 2011 12:01 am

Duration: 05:15

Available in: SD

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Full script

STORY: GHANA/ LIBERIAN REFUGEES
TRT: 5:15
SOURCE: UNIDO
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 22-24 AUGUST 2011, ACCRA, GHANA / FILE

SHOTLIST:

AUGUST 22, 23, 2011 BUDUBURAM REFUGEE SETTLEMENT NEAR ACCRA, GHANA

1. Various shots, Kebbe Mendscole sells her cornbread in streets of Buduburam

FILE – 1996 - MONROVIA, LIBERIA

2. Various shots, gunfire in streets

FILE – 1996 - ACCRA, GHANA

3. Various shots, Liberian refugees arrive by ship.

AUGUST 22, 23, 2011 BUDUBURAM REFUGEE SETTLEMENT NEAR ACCRA, GHANA

4. Close up, Kebbe making her cornbread in mixing bowl
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Kebbe Mendscole:
"There was an attack on our village that day, and we all separated. I went my own way, and my parents went another side. So friends brought me to Monrovia, and through friends I came in Ghana."
6. Various shots, Buduburam settlement
7. Various shots, examination day for dressmaking students in the settlement
8. Med shot, cookery class examination day
9. Close up, still image of land cultivated by FAO-trained cultivators
10. Close up, still image of food grown by FAO-trained cultivators, on sale in local market.
11. Close up, still image of well constructed by UNHCR
12. Various shots, bakery class, examination day 
13. Wide shot, hairdressing class, girls hair combed
14. Close up, still image of male students holding graduation certificates
15. Close up, still male students learning construction skills
16. Close up, still male students holding graduation certificates 
17. SOUNDBITE (English) Kwame Asante, National Programme Coordinator, UNIDO:
"Today we have people who had virtually no education, no skills, coming out not only with vocational training, but also with intensive training in entrepreneurship., which has given them the competence  to be able to set up their own businesses." 
18. Various shots, Buduburam Refugee Settlement.
19. SOUNDBITE (English) Tetteh Padi, Coordinator, Ghana Refugee Board:
"The local community should be able to say that they have gained something out of hosting the refugees here. And so for that reason, whatever program, whatever assistance that is provided for the refugees, we try to make sure that some of it goes into the community."

AUGUST 24 2011 MONROVIA LIBERIA

20. Various shots, Monrovia
21. Various shots, Doris Wonderful Stephens at work in her beauty salon
22. SOUNDBITE (English) Doris Wonderful Stephens:
"It makes me feel that a woman has a role to play in society. You can depend on yourself as a woman. You don't have to depend on a man to give you money before you can do anything, but on your own, if you decide to be a good career woman, and you go into that trade, even if you start from a very small shop. So long as you are very business-minded, as times go by in life, you have a bigger shop."

AUGUST 22, 23, 2011 BUDUBURAM REFUGEE SETTLEMENT NEAR ACCRA, GHANA

23. Various shots, Kebbe sells her cornbread in the street. 
24. SOUNDBITE (English)KebbeMendscole:
"I want a business big. I want to have a big place. The name would be Kebbe's Cornbread Centre. I want for them to have my Tee-shirt. If possible, I would teach people, and let them receive what I receive. That is my dream."
25. Med shot, Kebbe selling cornbread in the street

STORYLINE:

In Buduburam Ghana, KebbeMendscole sells the cornbread she makes herself.   She earns enough to support her four children.  She's doing well. But it wasn't always so.

For fourteen years, sporadic civil war overturned life in Liberia. A quarter of a million die, thousands flee the fighting.  Many came to Ghana, for them a stable country, a haven.

This is just the start of their quest for human security.

Kebbe and her children were among them.  Along with thousands of other Liberian refugees, she came to stay in Buduburam Refugee Settlement, near Accra, the Ghanaian capital.  With no source of income, she had to beg for food.

At the height of the civil war, most of the 42,000 refugees here were Liberian.

To have lasting security they needed to find work that can earn them a living, and for that they needed practical skills. And that's the key to that training.

Since 2007 the United Nations Industrial Development Organization UNIDO has been helping train refugees, working with its partners FAO and UNHCR as UN Joint Program, with key funding from the Japanese government through the UN Trust Fund for Human Security.

FAO trains people in farming, to increase food security. UNHCR works to improve living conditions in the camps. Together the agencies help the Ghanaian government ensure refugees' human security, and give them a sustainable future.

The six-month courses cover a range of skills. Some learn domestic trades like hairdressing. Others, mostly men, learn skills like carpentry and welding. The goal of the training is to enable refugees to set up their own small businesses, and earn a living for themselves and their families

Since 2008, UNHCR has also helped several thousand Liberians who chose to go home. Thousands more have left spontaneously. It hasn't been easy. Last December, Doris Wonderful Stephens came home to the Liberian capital Monrovia, and set up her beauty care salon with the skills she'd learned at Buduburam

For those refugees who've stayed in Ghana, or gone home to Liberia, becoming self-reliant has transformed their lives. From devastation and conflict, they've found the way ahead to human security and peace, with the help of the UN Joint program.

Filed under 13.01.00 - PROTECTION OF AND ASSISTANCE TO REFUGEES AND DISPLACED PERSONS GHANA LIBERIA UNIDO - United Nations Industrial Development Organization.