MADAGASCAR / POLITICAL VIOLENCE UPDATE (03:20)

4 December 2009

MADAGASCAR / POLITICAL VIOLENCE UPDATE (03:20)

As officials work on forming a new unity government following the political violence that sparked early this year, Malagasy children are still suffering emotional and psychological trauma. UNICEF has been working to provide psychosocial support to Madagascar's children and youth. UNICEF

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Full Script

STORY: MADAGASCAR / POLITICAL VIOLENCE UPDATE
TRT: 3:20
SOURCE: UNICEF
RESTRICTION: NONE
LANGUAGE: MALAGASY / FRENCH / NATS

DATELINE: JULY 15-17 2009, ANTANANARIVO, MADAGASCAR

SHOTLIST:

1. Wide shot, sunset Antananarivo
2. Wide shot, houses
3. Pan right, warehouse to crowd
4. Wide shot, crowd cheering
5. Wide shot, wreckage
6. Pull focus, wreckage
7. Wide shot, smoke and houses
8. Wide shot, market
9. Tilt down, burned building to vendor
10. Wide shot, street
11. Pan right, wreckage
12. Wide shot, graffiti
13. Wide shot, graffiti
14. Pan right, street to school sign
15. Wide shot, students
16. Wide shot, students
17. Wide shot, students
18. SOUNDBITE (Malagasy) Unidentified, 17-year-old schoolboy:
“I wasn’t involved in the rioting or looting but I witnessed violence, I saw people looting shops and I myself was tear-gassed and it burned my eyes. I saw the security forces shooting, it felt like a movie, but I always witnessed violence. I saw many many dead people outside the shops belonging to Ravalomanana. I saw a pregnant woman who had been shot dead and I can’t get the image out of my mind.”
19. Wide shot, kids skipping jump rope
20. Close up, skipping jump rope
21. Zoom out, reflection of creek
22. Wide shot, kids
23. Close up, social worker
24. Pan right, classroom
25. Close up, student
26. Tilt up, students
27. Wide shot, students
28. SOUNDBITE (French) Norotiana Jeannoda Randimbiarison, Social worker:
“The main goal of the psycho social support is to help students to express themselves, to express their emotions, their feelings, and to help the with their school work.  Social workers do individual counseling with the students who were individual victims of violence.”
29. Med shot, boys singing
30. Close up, boys singing
31. Wide shot, class applauding
32. SOUNDBITE (French) Norotiana Jeannoda Randimbiarison, Social worker:
“After the psycho social support we asked the students to evaluate it, 90 percent of them felt that it had really helped them. Many of them said they are now much happier and we see it in their faces, in their actions.”
33. Pan right, street to child friendly space
34. Close up, sign for child friendly space
35. Wide shot, supervisor with kids
36. Med shot, kids
37. Med shot, boys playing instruments
38. Med shot, girls playing with dolls
39. Close up, dolls
40. Close up, dancing feet
41. Wide shot, dancing kids
42. Med shot, dancing girl

STORYLINE:

As officials work on forming a new unity government following the political violence that sparked earlier this year, Malagasy children are still suffering emotional and psychological trauma. 
Since January, the country has been isolated and poverty among the people here has deepened. During the weeks of rioting and violence, over 100 people were killed and thousands injured. The impact on the country – especially the youth – has been devastating.
UNICEF and its partners conducted a study of 12,800 young adults and children from all over capital. The results indicated that all of them were affected in one way or another – every young adult surveyed had either suffered from, witnessed, or committed violence.  
Students at the Lycee Rabearivelo, a high school in the centre of the capital, were especially impacted. Rioting, looting and shooting took place right outside their school gates. Students bore witness to extreme violence and death and were often in fear for their own lives. 
SOUNDBITE (Malagasy) Unidentified, 17-year-old schoolboy:
“I wasn’t involved in the rioting or looting but I witnessed violence, I saw people looting shops and I myself was tear-gassed and it burned my eyes. I saw the security forces shooting, it felt like a movie, but I always witnessed violence. I saw many many dead people outside the shops belonging to (ousted Madagascar President Marc Ravalomanana) Ravalomanana. I saw a pregnant woman who had been shot dead and I can’t get the image out of my mind.”
UNICEF’s education and child protection sectors are supporting the training of social workers and the implementation of psychosocial support to both primary and secondary schools. 
So far, over 33, 000 children from 60 different schools throughout the country have been helped.

SOUNDBITE (French) Norotiana Jeannoda Randimbiarison, Social worker: “The main goal of the psychosocial support is to help students to express themselves, to express their emotions, their feelings, and to help the with their school work.  Social workers do individual counseling with the students who were individual victims of violence.”
Ms. Randimbiarison adapts sessions according to students’ age. They express themselves through drawing, writing and singing. She says the results have been positive.
SOUNDBITE (French) Norotiana Jeannoda Randimbiarison, Social Worker: “After the psychosocial support we asked the students to evaluate it, 90 percent of them felt that it had really helped them. Many of them said they are now much happier and we see it in their faces, in their actions.”
Child-friendly spaces have also been reinforced and developed throughout Antananarivo, giving preschool children a safe place to play and learn, away from the potentially volatile streets. The children are supervised and given toys, games and musical instruments to play with.
With the devastating effects of poverty and uncertain government, these intervention programs aim to help Madagascar’s children and young adults heal from the traumatic effects of violence and some kind of return to normalcy. 
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