Maldives

maldives

Maldives - Untold Stories (2006)

Genre Duration Format Broad - casters Air date DVD?

Humanitarian
52 minutes
16:9 (Widescreen) SDTV
Channel Nine Network of Australia and ABC Asia Pacific
To be announced (2006)
Not yet available

"Maldives - Untold Stories" is a 52 minute humanitarian documentary set on arguably the most beautiful country on earth; the republic of the Maldives. White sands, electric blue water and the multitude of tiny islands covered with palm and coconut trees, make this country an absolute dream setting for a honeymoon or idyllic island escape. But for most of us, we never actually see past that... for the Maldives is home to over 300,000 people and remains one of the poorest countries on our planet. This documentary is told through the eyes of Australians, who volunteered to help in the Maldives after the Tsunami disaster. These are the untold stories behind the island paradise that is the Maldives.

Maldives - the scattered islands

Maldives - the port in Male

Maldives - fishermen out to sea

To understand the lives of the local people, we firstly need to understand how the country works as a whole. Situated in the middle of the Indian Ocean, the country is made up of over 1,200 islands, which are scattered over an area of 55,000 square kilometres. Ninety nine percent of this area is ocean, meaning there is simply not enough landmass to support large-scale agricultural development; no large oil or mineral deposits and is too far away from major transport routes for significant international commerce or trade. The only thing the people of the Maldives are able to produce themselves is fish and cocounts. Absolutely everything else must be imported. And once it is imported into the capital of Male, there is the extra cost of transporting this material to all of the other inhabited islands, often hundreds and hundreds of kilometres away.

Maldives - a local woman

Maldives - the local people on their island

On their own islands, often no larger than 300 metres in diameter, the Maldivian locals will live and die. There is nowhere else for them to go. A typical day begins at dawn with the Koran echoing down sandy streets. The children, in their smart uniforms, run to school for another day of learning. The mother spends her day grinding coconuts and preparing the imported rice. She will spend hours doing this; her fingers ever so slowly, separating the bad grains from the good. The father spends his time on the ocean. He will fish and earn the entire income for his family. His catch for the day will also provide them with food. The fish will be cooked with the separated rice and this will be dinner once again for the children when they return home. For these people, this is daily life. Days turn into weeks, weeks turn into months and years will pass without having taken one step off their tiny island. The horizon of their experiences ends, where the sand meets the sea. Their only contact with the rest of the world is the occasional boat, carrying the imports they need to survive another day.

Maldives - the locals working

Maldives - the children playing

Maldives - welcoming visitors

For the Maldives, it's this massive outlay on import spending which means the country is in massive debt and relies heavily on foreign aid. The only source of income here is generated through tourism. The holiday resort islands are famously known around the world as the ultimate escape. Also, the underwater world of the Maldives provides some of the best snorkeling and scuba diving known to mankind. Besides tourism, the secondary income stream is generated through fishing, and in particular, tuna exporting. But even so, the cost of importing, far outweighs the cost of exporting. And just when things couldn't get any worse, Mother Nature would strike. The ocean the Maldivian people so heavily relied on, would crash down on them in the form of a massive wave.

Maldives - damage on one of the islands down south

Maldives - a man walks out of his broken home

The effect the tsunami had on the Maldives' already vulnerable economy was devastating. Over a third of the population had been badly affected. After the tsunami, of the 198 inhabited islands, 79 islands had no safe water, 26 had no electricity. 188 islands were with no telephone links. And schools and health facilities were destroyed in over 50 islands. Whatever the Maldivian people did have was lost. Their main source of income for the country, tourism, had banished. The President promptly set up a ministerial committee declaring a state of national disaster and appealed for international assistance.

Maldives - an engineer in the field

Maldives - A marine scientist on the mantatoe

Maldives - a teacher in the classroom

Countries, like Australia, did answer the Maldives request for assistance and aid was immediately on its way - Doctors, nurses and medical equipment arriving within days. Transportation of food and aid were quickly sent out to each island as well as several Australian Volunteers to help in their specific professional fields. Construction engineers were sent over to assist in the rebuilding of schools and homes. Teachers followed closely to assist in a range of schools. And Australian coral marine experts were also sent to the Maldives to assess the impact the tsunami had on the islands' adjacent coral reefs. This was crucial in terms of the fishing industry but also in terms of the tourism industry. If the underwater world was severely damaged by the tsunami, then there were great fears that what was their main income earner for the country would be lost...

Maldives - the magnificent underwater world

Maldives - a school of giant Manta Rays being cleaned by Remora fish

"Maldives - Untold Stories" covers an array of unique issues that affects the Maldives and is told through the eyes of the Australian Volunteers that have helped in this country. The documentary also explains how foreign aid does work. The aid money does get through and it does help. The main aim of our documentary is to enlighten and educate its viewers on how foreign aid really can make a difference. If we can all understand how it works and can all make our own contribution, whether it be donating to such NGO's or simply going for a holiday in places like the Maldives, then we can all make a difference and achieve a very realistic goal; and make poverty history.

Maldives - little girl

Maldives - A mother with her child