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UN Radio
UN and Africa
Programme Number: 184
Week of: Sunday, 23rd December, 2007
Recording Date: Thursday, 27th December, 2007
Topical Issue(s):
• Wives of African ambassadors to the
United Nations continue to raise thousands of
dollars to fund development projects benefiting
women and children in Africa. The UN African
Mothers Association hosts an annual luncheon
and other events such as bazaars to support
projects on the continent.
• A health facility in a remote village
of Burundi is helping people who are in desperate
need of medical service in a country that is
recovering from over a decade of civil war.
Deo Niyizonkiza, a Burundian medical student
involved in the project says despite the problems
it is encountering, the facility is already
seeing an average of sixty patients a day.
• The end of December is an exciting time
for children because that’s when they
receive gifts. But the beginning of the month
was equally exciting for Liberian children as
they took over the waves of UNMIL Radio for
this year’s International Children’s
Day of Broadcasting.
Producer/presenter: Derrick Mbatha
Editor: Ransford Cline-Thomas
Production Assistant: Charles Appel
Studio Engineer: Zach Pruwit
Duration: 15’00”
RESENTER: This is United Nations Radio in New
York.
*** SIG TUNE *** (Please, play briefly, dip
upon wave, and hold under narr.)
PRESENTER:
Hello and welcome to UN and Africa. I am Derrick
Mbatha.
*** SIG TUNE ***: (Bring Sig Tune up briefly,
dip and hold under)
PRESENTER:
In today’s programme, an organization
of African Ambassadors’ wives helps people
back home.
CLIP 1: Dawn Cooper Barnes
“I’ve seen the difference it has
made for my children in Liberia. So I’m
willing to work very hard to benefit as many
other African children and as many other causes
as I possibly can.”
PRESENTER:
You will hear more on that in a moment. Also
in this edition, a medical student from Burundi
talks about a medical health centre in his country.
CLIP 2: Deo Niyizonkiza
“We just couldn’t wait. We decided
that even having a tent will be enough, we can
save lives by just using day light. It’s
better than nothing.”
And later in the programme, Liberian children
take over the airwaves of the UN Mission Radio
in Liberia.
So, stay tuned to UN and Africa.
*** SIG TUNE *** (Bring up briefly, dip and
hold under until first sentence)
xxxxxx
PRESENTER:
African Ambassadors’ Wives Help Sisters
Back Home
PRESENTER:
If you think that wives of African ambassadors
to the United Nations are merely housewives
who do domestic chores while their husbands
grapple with world issues, think again. These
women, living in New York, have cooked up a
way to help their sisters back home. The United
Nations African Mothers’ Association,
known as UNAMA, has raised thousands of dollars
to fund development projects benefiting women
and children on the continent. UN Radio’s
Dianne Penn attended their annual fundraising
luncheon and filed this report.
NARR: Back in the mid-1980s, a group of African
ambassadors’ wives in New York wanted
to do something about the famine in Ethiopia.
Pooling their talents—including their
skills in the kitchen—the women raised
$50,000 for UN relief efforts in the east African
nation. And they haven’t stopped. Since
then, the United Nations African Mothers’
Association, known as UNAMA, has raised thousands
of dollars to fund development projects benefiting
women and children on the continent. Group president
Tikie Kumalo from South Africa explains the
rationale behind their annual lunch.
UNA_TIKIE 1: It helps the mothers and children
who are in need. So we look at the needs of
those people in Africa. Not just one country:
the whole of Africa.
NARR: For more than 20 years, the ladies of
UNAMA, the United Nations African Mothers Association,
have used their talents to raise money to help
women and children in Africa. Through an annual
luncheon and other fundraising events, such
as bazaars, they’ve supported numerous
projects including schools, hospitals and orphanages,
says member Dawn Cooper Barnes from Liberia.
UNA_DAWN 1: I am a mother; not just a mother
but a mother of 55. I’m not kidding because
I have five natural children and I support another
50 children at an orphanage in Liberia. And
I am so happy to be here because UNAMA has given
to my orphanage in Liberia and I’ve seen
the difference it has made for my children in
Liberia. So I’m willing to work very hard
to benefit as many other African children and
as many other causes as I possibly can.
NARR: It was difficult to decide on what to
eat from the yummy pan-African offerings which
included lamb and couscous from Mauritania,
potato greens with chicken from Liberia, and
spinach in peanut sauce from Zimbabwe. But Eva
Forson tempted me with a dish from her native
Ghana.
Eva: Gari is made from cassava greens. It is
soaked and mixed with tomato sauce and sometimes
you can just keep (laughs)…
Dianne: It is like having a taste of home?
And you’re sharing it with all of us.
Eva: That’s right, that’s right!
NARR: UNAMA members are helping to make life
better for so many who have so little. Their
assistance could benefit many women in places
like southern Africa, said Lesotho Ambassador
Lebohang Fine Maema.
UNA_MAEME 1: Just like in the general sense
for African countries, we have this major problem
of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. To some extent it
really affects more of our women and children.
And because of the role that women play in society
they really play quite a very, very, important
role. And as a result of this they are somehow
affected in terms of other related issues, obviously:
you talk about education and all that. Some
of the children even sometimes as a result of
losing their parents, as orphans you find that
they have to leave school early in order to
take care of their families. Hence you realize
these are the kinds of challenges that we have.
NARR: In praising the women of UNAMA, South
African Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo said he believes
women play an important role in getting messages
across to their communities.
UNA_DUMASANI 2: In South Africa when we went
for elections for the first time, they came
and taught men how to vote. And they checked
about two months later: very few people knew
how to vote. Then they changed and taught mothers
how to vote, and the thing you saw were the
lines that were endless. Because mothers would
go home and make sure everybody knows what’s
happening.
NARR: And from their location in New York,
the women of UNAMA are sustaining this proud
heritage says member Eva Forson.
UNA_EVA FORSON 1: Each year all our members
cook, so you come and have a panorama of African
food. And that’s how we manage to raise
the funds: a ticket at a time. But then we are
able to help in whichever way we can.
NARR: Eva Forson from Ghana, a member of the
UN African Mothers Association (UNAMA). For
UN and Africa, I’m Dianne Penn.
STING UN AFRICA THEME MUSIC
It is that time of the year when in many countries
around the world people receive and give gifts
to celebrate the festive season. But in the
remote Kikutu village of Burundi, two American
doctors, six Burundian nurses, and locally trained
community health workers are giving the gift
of life to people in a health facility that
is still under construction. Deon Niyizonkiza
a Burundian medical student studying in the
United States is deeply involved in this undertaking.
So when he visited the United Nations recently,
I discussed this project with him.
NIYIZONKIZA: The project is to serve the destitute
sick of Burundi who have had no access to health
care at all and most of the people die at home,
they don’t get medicine, they die from
most of undiagnosed diseases. That’s why
we decided that after a few visits over there,
we should do all we can humanely do, and talk
to friends and people who can be able to help.
MBATHA: And can you give me an idea of what
the project is like?
MBATHA: It’s in a rural area sixty miles
away from Bujumbura down south near the border
of the Democratic Republic of Congo and several
miles away from Tanzania. We get involved with
the community. We have been working together.
They make bricks. They have been carrying stones
on their heads and we have talked to a few friends
here in the United States doing some fund raising
to get some money to be able to help in work
the community cannot be able to do. We just
finished the construction of the out patient
facility and we have already started seeing
patients. It’s in the heart of darkness.
We just have no electricity. We have no power.
The infrastructure is really very bad in a country
that just got out of thirteen years of war.
So it’s very difficult, but we are so
lucky that the community has been coming together
to work on this project.
MBATHA: You are saying that you have already
started seeing out patients.
NIYIZONKIZA: Yes.
MBATHA: Now, how are you able to do that with
the problem of, for instance, not having power?
NIYIZONKIZA: It’s a big challenge. We
felt that in a place like that, that is so desperate,
seeing patients dying in front of us, it is
more urgent than ever to really help people
who have showed this commitment to contribute,
who have shown us that they are willing to work
on this health centre, on this clinic and we
just couldn’t wait. We decided that even
having a tent will be enough, we can save lives
by just using day light. It’s better than
nothing. For example, we use day light to use
some of microscopes. As you know this modern
technology has very sophisticated machines and
we have wonderful people actually who are offering
to donate some of the medical equipment but
these require power. In addition to that it
has been very hard for us to take patients,
for example to referral hospitals, patients
that we normally could be able to help and treat
from the site but because exactly we do not
have enough infrastructure like power, we have
to take them to a hospital really where people
just go to die, but because they have electricity.
And an ambulance is a huge problem, lack of
an ambulance because most of the people come
and they are too sick to be able to move around.
MBATHA: How many patients are you able to see
on average, let’s say a day?
NIYIZONKIZA: It’s never been anything
below sixty patients. And not only that, because
we have no power, to see patients in the evening,
we just have to tell them ‘go back home
and come back tomorrow,’ but the challenges
are some of the patients have to walk for days
to reach and where do they go? They just sleep
outside of the out patient facility and wait
for the next day. So, it’s a lot and we
actually are becoming more overwhelmed than
we ever thought that we were gong to be and
the project really has been going well. It just
started last, and to look at where we are now
as opposed to where we starting from scratch,
is really unbelievable. So the expectations
from the community, not just within our catchment
but beyond are just beyond what we can humanely
do.
PRESENTER:
Deon Niyizonkiza, a medical student from Burundi
studying in the United States.
STING UN AFRICA THEME MUSIC
PRESENTER:
This week Christians around the world celebrated
Christmas Day, a time of excitement for children
as they receive toys and other gifts. But the
beginning of December was also exciting for
children in Liberia who took over the air waves
of UNMIL Radio for the International Children’s
Day of Broadcasting. If you think the pros are
good at what they do, wait till you hear what
these Liberian children can do over the airwaves.
MUSIC STINGER:
NARRATOR:
This is UNMIL Radio, the official voice of
the United Nations Mission in Liberia. The UNMIL
Radio News at Eleven. My name is Alan Njala
and Efi Eka, good morning. President Ellen Johnson
Sirleaf has announced one thousand Liberian
dollars increase in the month to benefit for
all persons in government pension pay roll.
The increase takes reactive effect from November
1st this year. The President has directed Finance
Minister Antoinette Sayeh to implement the increase
immediately to enable pensioners to get the
new benefits in time for the Christmas holiday.
President Johnson Sirleaf took the decision
after a government cabinet committee appointed
to look into pension issues found the monthly
pension benefit will be grossly inadequate to
meet the needs of the pensioners.
MUSIC STINGER
More than 160 Liberian children have taken
over the air waves of UNMIL Radio to produce
and present programme mark this year’s
International Children’s Day of Broadcasting.
They are preparing presenting various types
of programmes, news, discussions, talks shows
and quiz. This is a third time UNMIL Radio is
making available its air waves to Liberian children
to celebrate the International Children’s
Day of Broadcasting. The International Children’s
Day of Broadcasting which takes place every
December presents a unique opportunity for children
to use the media to express their opinions on
issues affecting their welfare and development.
The Convention on the Rights of the Child, which
has been ratified by almost every country on
earth stakes in Article 12 that every child
has the right to express his or her opinion
freely and to voice that opinion. The International
Children’s Day of Broadcasting gives kids
this chance. In 1991, UNICEF challenged the
media and broadcast industry to do more for
kids and in that year, the first International
Children’s Day of Broadcasting was observed
in more than eighty countries. Governments in
many countries have embraced the day using it
for a catalyst for action on behalf of children.
MUSIC STINGER
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission will
begin its series of workshops and town hall
meetings to develop a policy document for addressing
women’s issues at the TRC. TRC Commissioner
responsible for women’s affairs Mass Washington,
says town hall meetings will be held in all
the fifteen counties, while four counties will,
in addition host workshops. Experts to address
the town hall meeting are coming from East Timor
and Sierra Leone.
MUSIC STINGER
The management of Firestone Liberia has acquired
a new ambulance. The Chief Medical Officer of
the Company Dr. Lyndon Mabande says the new
ambulance is equipped with modern medical gudgets.
Dr. Mabande says the new ambulance, which costs
more than U.S. $35,000 brings to three the number
of ambulances owned and operated by the Firestone
Medical Centre.
SIG TUNE
Good Afternoon, from Monrovia, this is the
UNMIL Radio News in Special English. I am Jala
Duwacha (sic), broadcaster.
PRESENTER:
That is just a sample of what Liberian children
can do over the air waves. Is my job on the
line? We can always learn from the young ones.
SIG TUNE (Bring up briefly, dip and hold under)
PRESENTER:
And that’s all for this edition of UN
and Africa. Our Production Assistant was Charles
Appel and our sound engineer was Zach Prewit.
I am Derrick Mbatha for all of us at UN Radio
wishing you happy holidays and a prosperous
New Year.
*** CLOSING MUSIC ***
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