Title: INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY. ICRC ACTION FOR WOMEN.
Date & location: Hodeida, Yemen, December 2005. Darfur, Sudan, September 2005.
Natural with Arabic and English speech.
Duration: 9'33''.
Produced by: Jon Bjorgvinsson, Johnny Saunderson, Virginie Miranda.
Source: ICRC – Access all.
Reference: CR-F-00897-B.

This report will be distributed free-to-air and rights free on Tuesday 7 March 2006 on Eurovision World Feed satellites at 14.20 to 14.30 GMT and on Eurovision News at 12.45 GMT.

For full details of the World feed, go to the EBU website

It is also available through ENEX, the European News Exchange.

For broadcast tapes and information on footage: Virginie Miranda, ICRC, Geneva,

Shows:

Start at first frame


HODEIDA, YEMEN, DECEMBER 2005, (ICRC – ACCESS ALL)

00:00 Yemeni Red Crescent Society (YRCS) volunteers entering Hodeida central prison for women. Female guard opening gate.
00:26 Inside the classroom. Close-up of four-month-old baby, Khalil, sitting on his mother's lap, watching a sewing machine during a sewing class for inmates of Hodeida central prison for women.
00:34 Khalil and mother – her sewing.
00:38 General view of the sewing classroom with teacher and students.
00:44 Close-up of detainees sewing. Various shots of teacher Aish Diem Mhfod (YRCS) helping detainees.
01:13 Interview with Aish Diem Mhfod (YRCS), sewing class teacher – (Arabic). (13'').
“When my girls learn, and they find it interesting, it makes me happy to know that they have learnt something. On leaving prison, they can work as seamstresses. Become part of the fabric of society, as it were.”

01:26 Aisha has been in prison for five months with her four-month-old baby Khalil.
01:35 Interview with Aisha – (Arabic). (10'').
“I’m making the most of this because when I get out of prison I want to make clothes.”

01:46 Interview with Aisha – (Arabic) (15'').
“It passes the time. It helps us forget we’re in prison. We’re grateful to the Red Cross and to Auntie Aish for all the help they’ve given us.”

02:02.
Interview with Juma, second prisoner, sewing student – (Arabic) (27'').
“Why didn’t I learn to sew before? Because I have five small children. I was looking after the house and bringing up my children. And because I have no-one to help me.
I was at home the whole time. I couldn’t get out to attend school or learn to sew. I was at home. I had no opportunity.”

02:28 Yemen Red Crescent volunteer walking with Aisha and her baby Khalil.
02:39 Various shots in clothes shop.
03:01 Female inmates taking part in a literacy class given by a volunteer from the Yemen Red Crescent Society. Hodeida central prison.


SUDAN – DARFUR – SEPTEMBER 2005 – (ICRC – ACCESS ALL)

03:55 Women with donkey, collecting sticks a few kilometres outside Kassab camp for displaced persons, North Darfur.
04:24 Interview with Khadiga – woman carrying sticks outside Kassab camp (9'').
"The security situation is quite bad because Arab militias are living in our place. If they leave and security returns, we can go back to our village."

04:33 Inoculating mothers and babies – Fuco Dico, between Nyertete and Zalingei, West Darfur – mobile clinic site.
That day 13 women and 23 children received a total of 72 doses. Primary health-care nurse Catherine Fry (Australian Red Cross) is working for the International Committee of the Red Cross.
05:20 Primary health-care – ICRC ante-natal clinic – Abata, West Darfur.
Various women waiting – ante-natal clinic – the scene outside, mothers and babies.
05:57 Zeinab waiting. Set-up shots for Zeinab, whom we follow into the clinic and on to the mosquito net session.
06:16 Inside ICRC ante-natal surgery. Primary health-care nurse Catherine Fry (Australian Red Cross) examines mothers and babies. That day 35 ante-natal consultations were held.
06:44 Zeinab taking her tablets.
06:56 Zeinab being inoculated (tetanus vaccine).
07:07 Zeinab walking to ICRC mosquito net demonstration.
07:36 Zeinab arriving and sitting down for mosquito net demonstration.
07:47 ICRC mosquito net demonstration. Close up of mosquito net as instructor performs demonstration. Sudanese Red Crescent volunteers held six sessions for pregnant women and new mothers on malaria prevention and the use of nets. 113 mosquito nets were distributed (34 to pregnant women and 79 to mothers with children under six months).
Various shots: mothers and babies watching the mosquito net demonstration.
08:12 Handing out mosquito nets.
08:33 Interview with Zeinab (Arabic) (27'') – She comes from the village of Anduru and is nine months pregnant.
"I've never been to a hospital before because we are nomads and we move around with our camels. We never had access to a clinic before."
09:00 Interview (English) (33'') with Florence Tercier Holst-Roness, head of the ICRC’s "Women and war" project.
"Sadly, International Women's day is important to remind the world about the plight of women affected by armed conflict. Women are of particular concern for the ICRC, because they usually hold together families and communities but their needs are often overlooked, since they are less present in the public sphere. Therefore, it is essential for the ICRC to have female staff able to communicate with women and provide appropriate support.”
09:33'' ENDS.


STORY

New strategies for meeting the needs of women affected by armed conflict

Geneva (ICRC) – Supporting the victims of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, looking after isolated women and children in Darfur or in the part of Kashmir under Pakistani administration, training female prisoners in Yemen to help them prepare for release … these are just a few examples of the ICRC’s commitment to assessing the needs of women properly and addressing them in all its operations.

Florence Tercier Holst-Roness, "Women are of particular concern for the ICRC, because they usually hold together families and communities but their needs are often overlooked, since they are less present in the public sphere."

YEMEN

In Yemen, female prisoners are very often isolated. Cut off from society and rejected by their families, they get no visitors. Imprisoned for adultery, prostitution, alcohol abuse or crime, they live behind bars with their young children.

Khalil is four months old, and his Somali mother Aisha has been in prison for five. In Hodeida central prison, the inmates enjoy a little freedom during sewing or Arabic classes given by volunteers from the Yemen Red Crescent Society.

The ICRC is rising to the challenge of giving these women the chance of a better future, improving their daily lives and giving them skills that will help them rejoin society when they get out.
Aisha hopes she will be able to use her new talents one day. “I’m making the most of this, because when I get out of prison I want to make clothes.”

For Aisha and Juma, the only contact with the outside world is their sewing teacher, a volunteer from the Yemen Red Crescent Society they call “Auntie Aish.” For her, this is more than just work.
“When my girls learn, and they find it interesting, it makes me happy to know that they have learnt something. On leaving prison, they can work as seamstresses. Become part of the fabric of society, as it were.”

Paradoxically, these women can achieve things for themselves in prison for which they would never have had the time or resources outside. Juma has five children and is serving a three-year sentence. She has been in prison for four months.
“Why didn’t I learn to sew before? Because I have five small children. I was looking after the house and bringing up my children. And because I have no-one to help me.
I was at home the whole time. I couldn’t get out to attend school or learn to sew. I was at home. I had no opportunity.”

The literacy class is full. It covers Arabic, maths, health and nutrition, plus Koranic studies. Classes relieve the boredom of prison life, and arguments between cell-mates become less common.

So far, about 60 women have taken advantage of the Yemen Red Crescent Society’s programme in the central prisons of Hodeida, where free sewing and literacy classes have been available for three years.

Once these women get out of prison, the path back to normal life is full of obstacles. The attitude of family and community can be intolerable. In such cases, female ex-prisoners try to start new lives under a cloak of anonymity, making it that much harder to help them.


DARFUR – SUDAN

In Darfur, it is often too dangerous for displaced persons to return to their villages. Life in the camps is organized. The women are busy with their daily task of gathering wood, essential for both cooking and shelter.

Wood is getting rare around Kutum camp for displaced persons in North Darfur. People are having to walk over 5 km to find trees that still have branches and leaves. Carrying their cargo of wood on their heads, the women move around in groups so as not to be too isolated. But with no men or soldiers to protect them, they still run the risk of attack. The men prefer to let the women go out alone, claiming they would be risking their lives if they left the camp.

Khadiga comes from a village near the mountains of Aburu. She lost touch with her husband and her son when their village was attacked. She does not know what has happened to them. Now she is head of the household. She has her mother and five children to look after, and has taken refuge in Kassab camp. But not by choice. "The security situation is quite bad because Arab militias are living in our place. If they go away and security returns, we can go back to our village."

In West Darfur, at Abata, near Zalingei, other displaced persons have been able to return to their village. The road has been made safe and the Sudanese army controls this bit of territory.

One specific feature of the ICRC’s work is that the organization relies on maintaining neutral and direct contact with all involved in the conflict, including rebel forces and armed militias. As a result, the ICRC is able to provide primary health-care in remote rural areas to which other relief organizations do not have access.

It also runs routine immunization programmes in no-go areas for the ministry of health such as in SLA-held areas in the Jebel Mara, West Darfur or in the area of Kutum, North Darfur.

In Darfur, access to any kind of health-care in remote rural areas is severely restricted by the threat of violence and the location of health posts; distances are great and people usually have no means of transport but their feet. In addition, the workload for women is heavy; they are usually responsible for all the essential daily tasks, such as finding food, water and firewood for the whole family, as well as working in the field.

Yet disease is rampant and people suffer from malaria, anaemia, malnutrition and dehydration. According to the World Health Organization, acute respiratory infections, malaria, injuries and bloody diarrhoea remain the primary health problems in Darfur. In times of conflict, there is still a great need for primary health programmes that will cover 90% of common health needs.

The eight ICRC-supported primary health clinics concentrate on preventive care, including vaccination against common childhood diseases, care for mothers and babies, ante-natal care and post-natal consultations to a catchment's population of 123,000 people. The clinics also provide anti-malaria medication and education on preventative measures such as the use of mosquito nets.

Here at a newly-refurbished clinic in Abata, a government-held area, women are queuing up for consultations. Some of them have never seen a doctor in their lives. Zeinab is one of them – this will be her first examination by a doctor. She is taken care of by Catherine Fry, an experienced Australian Red Cross nurse. To facilitate communicate with women, the ICRC tries to make sure its teams include both sexes.

At 29, Zeinab already has two children and is about to give birth to her third. Like the first two, number three will be born at home near the village of Anduru, near Zalingei. Zeinab is from a large nomadic family of Arabic origin and has walked an hour to get to the market place, where she was told that the clinic was open today. She explains: "I've never been to a hospital before because we are nomads and we move around with our camels. We never had access to a clinic before."
Just like her female neighbours of Fur (African) origin, Zeinab will be vaccinated against tetanus and will receive iron tablets and tablets against the worms that can lead to anaemia, premature delivery, bleeding, still-birth or a very small baby.
Women also receive anti-malaria tablets, a mosquito net and training in how to use it. Babies are vaccinated against six childhood diseases: polio, tuberculosis, measles, diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough.

In 2005, the ICRC has administrated 290,000 immunization doses, 152,800 of them against polio during national days of immunisation (Polio and Measles) and regular enlarged program of immunisation (EPI). It also responded to outbreaks of diseases in remote areas, for example vaccinating around 49,000 children against measles in opposition-controlled area as Jebel Mara. During the year 2005, ICRC doctors provided 120,000 curative consultations (67,500 for women), 7,050 ante and post-natal consultations and 190 health-education sessions were carried out.

More than 30 pregnant women came for consultations on the day the film was made (6 September 2005), and the consultations were followed by training on how to use mosquito nets. 113 mosquito nets were handed out that day, and two weeks later that number had risen to 500. Pregnant women and women with children under six months receive the nets, which are impregnated with mosquito repellent, keeping mosquitoes away from the whole family.

Help for women who have been displaced, medical care for women who have been injured, artificial limbs for those who have been maimed, visits to those who are in prison, restoration of contact with family members for those who have lost touch. These are some of the ways the ICRC helps those women most in need, at the same time promoting the respect to which they are entitled.