10 Mar 2012

NIGERIA / STREET CHILDREN

Lagos, a chaotic and polluted mega-city built on swamps and reclaimed lagoons, is an economic draw for all of West Africa. UN agencies estimate that 10.2 million people live in the city, and 49 per cent of the country’s population is under age 18. This means a staggering number of children live in the dense metropolitan area, many on the streets. UNICEF

Posted at: March 10, 2012 12:02 am

Duration: 04:12

Available in: SD, HD

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Full script

STORY: NIGERIA / STREET CHILDREN
TRT: 4.12
SOURCE: UNICEF
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 26-28 JANUARY 2012, LAGOS, NIGERIA

SHOTLIST:
 
1. Wide shot, boys carrying fruit on heads by the beach
2. Med shot, boys carrying fruit on heads by the beach
3. Wide shot, girls and guys bathing in sea
4. Med shot, boys exchanging money
5. Wide shot, Chinasa walking out of the water 
6. Wide shot, Chinasa running up sand 
7. SOUNDBITE (English), Chinasa Paul, 15 years old:
"Sometimes we normally feel better here more than our home."
8. Wide shot, Damilola walking on beach
9. SOUNDBIET (English) Damilola Onalaja, 15 years old: 
"I am not feeling better about being here as I am here now. I am not ok. Everywhere is rough, everywhere is dirty, I don't feel like staying in this kind of environment."
10. Wide shot, boy sitting on sidewalk
11. Wide shot, boys on street
12. Wide shot, zoom out of highway
13. Med shot, traffic on highway
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Ngozi Ekwerike-Okoro, National Co-ordinator, Child to Child Network:
"There is an increase in the number of children running away from home. And most times most of them are from the neighbouring states."
15. Zoom out, buildings in Lagos
16. Wide shot, traffic
17. Pan left, informal housing
18. Close shot, children
19. SOUNDBITE (English) Sara Beysolow-Nyanti, Chief, UNICEF Lagos Field Office:
"A child in Lagos today most likely will find it very difficult in relation to survival and development because for one, the competition in relation to just space - space to exist, living space is very high. You find children going to school in extremely difficult circumstances and the growing challenges in relation to the present context in Nigeria you have families trying hard to cope with the economy with inflation."
20. Wide shot, slum
21. Med shot, child in slum
22. Wide shot, child in slum playing with cloth
23. Close shot, child in slum playing with cloth
24. Zoom out, traffic with child sleeping on cement block
25. Close shot, boy playing table-football
26. Wide shot, social worker playing table-football with boys
27. Close shot, table-football
28. Wide shot, boys playing table-football
29. Wide shot, Ngozi being greeted by boys at children's home
30. SOUNDBITE (English) Ngozi Ekwerike-Okoro, National Coordinator, Child to Child Network:
"What we try to do in child to child network is that knowing that the parents are not always there for the children is to empower the children to be able to survive whether their parents are there or not. So what we start with is empowering them on their rights for them to know their rights and responsibilities."
31. Med shot, Chinasa eating
32. Close shot, Chinasa eating
33. SOUNDBITE (English) Chinasa Paul, 15 years old:
"I am going to go back home and will go to school before I become a footballer. I plan that I will go in December time." 
34. Close shot, Damilola gluing box
35. Wide shot, Damilola gluing box
36. Close shot, Damilola gluing box
37. Wide shot, Damilola talking to another boy
38. SOUNDBITE (English) Damilola Onalaja, 15 years old:
"My dreams of future are to be a great printer and support the street children. I feel like building my own hostel as in my own organization."
39. Med shot, boy on Kuramo beach
40. Close shot, boy on Kuramo beach
41. Close shot, Damilola looking out to sea
42. Wide shot, Damilola looking out to sea

STORYLINE:
 
Sex and drugs are readily available on Kuramo Beach, a stretch of sand along the Gulf of Guinea. Children play in the sand, not far from sex workers. Nearby, tough young men known as 'area boys' sit under battered beach umbrellas.

It is also home to children living and working on the streets of Lagos.

Fifteen-year-old Chinasa Paul is an orphan from Ebonyi State, 500 km away. He lives and works on Kuramo Beach.

SOUNDBITE (English), Chinasa Paul, 15 years old:
"Sometimes, we normally feel better here, more than our home."

For Damilola Onalaja, who used to live on the streets, just being here brings back painful memories.

SOUNDBITE (English) Damilola Onalaja, 15 years old: 
"I am not feeling better about being here as I am here now. I am not ok. Everywhere is rough, everywhere is dirty, I don't feel like staying in this kind of environment."

It is the third time that workers from Child-to-Child Network, a non-governmental organization, have found him sleeping on the streets. The first time, he received three months of counseling and hot meals at the organization's reception centre.

When he declined to return to the home of an uncle in Lagos, he was placed in a home for children, but he ran away after he an employee there treated him roughly. Child-to-Child Network then arranged for him to stay with another uncle in eastern Nigeria, but that situation did not work, either.

SOUNDBITE (English) Ngozi Ekwerike-Okoro, National Coordinator, Child to Child Network:
"There is an increase in the number of children running away from home. And most times most of them are from the neighbouring states."

Lagos, a chaotic and polluted mega-city built on swamps and reclaimed lagoons, is an economic draw for all of West Africa. UN agencies estimate that 10.2 million people live in the city, and 49 per cent of the country's population is under age 18. This means a staggering number of children live in the dense metropolitan area.

As more people stream in, so does the pressure on housing, education and other social services.

The government is trying to keep up. But in this urban jungle, children are slipping through the net.

SOUNDBITE (English) Sara Beysolow-Nyanti, Chief, UNICEF Lagos Field Office:
"A child in Lagos today most likely will find it very difficult in relation to survival and development because for one, the competition in relation to just space, space to exist, living space is very high. You find children going to school in extremely difficult circumstances and the growing challenges in relation to the present context in Nigeria you have families trying hard to cope with the economy with inflation."

Abuse, conflict, neglect and poverty often leave children with little choice but to turn to a life on the streets.

The streets of Lagos are a harsh place to grow up. This is why UNICEF is supporting the Child to Child network, a local NGO that works with government agencies and other organizations to locate and counsel children living on the streets.

The aim is to reunite them with their families, provide them with a home and get them to school or into a job.

SOUNDBITE (English) Ngozi Ekwerike-Okoro, National Coordinator, Child-to-Child Network:
"What we try to do in child to child network is that knowing that the parents are not always there for the children is to empower the children to be able to survive whether their parents are there or not. So what we start with is empowering them on their rights for them to know their rights and responsibilities."

Bringing each child back from the brink is a challenge. Some have no choice and others simply can't escape the addiction of life on the streets.

SOUNDBITE (English) Chinasa Paul, 15 years old:
"I am going to go back home and will go to school before I become a footballer. I plan that I will go in December time."

For Damilola though, his days on the streets are over. Through the child-to-child network programme, he is now training at a printing company and has reconnected with his family.

He is a mentor for other children wanting to leave the streets.

SOUNDBITE (English) Damilola Onalaja, 15 years old:
"My dreams of future are to be a great printer and support the street children. I feel like building my own hostel as in my own organization."

UNICEF supports Child Lifeline and Child-to-Child Network, as well as the Child Protection Network (CPN), which operates throughout Nigeria. These groups collaborate to protect children from abuse and exploitation and work together to find children's families.