EUROPE/ITALY - “Communicating Africa” Harambee Award 2nd edition, winners from Nigeria and Ireland

Tuesday, 14 November 2006

Rome (Agenzia Fides) - This morning at the Mayor’s Office in Rome, Nigerian Gabriel Otonoku, and Irish Jim Fahy, were awarded the International Harambee Award respectively in the categories: “African Productions” and “non-African productions”. The purpose of the award is to encourage diffusion of information on Africa which goes beyond the usual stereotypes (Africa = war, hunger, emergency). The jury composed of communications experts and African students resident in Rome, selected two documentaries: Alaoma - Land of beauty and splendour by Gabriel Otonoku, and “C.Y. Okonkwo”, produced by Rediscover Nigeria, for “a Nigeria in peace, aware and proud of its history and many cultures, where faith in Christ, in Allah, in animist and traditional religions live side by side in harmony. To Nigeria pushing itself in modernity towards economic growth while not denying its cultural roots which are the essence and adhesive of its identity and the emblem of the nation”.
And the documentary “When you say four thousand goodbyes” by Jim Fahy, produced by Radio Telefis Eireann, was rewarded for “narrating the extraordinary commitment of Irish medical doctor Mike Meegan, working for 25 years among 30,000 Masa people in a region of Kenya without infrastructures, power or clean water and decimated by AIDS, cholera, malaria and TB. The story of a man who never gives up. In his obstinate battle against poverty and pain some see him as a saint, others as Don Quixote. We, members of the jury, see him as a man who cannot see his fellowmen and women suffer without putting up a fight”.
The award is part of HARAMBEE-All together for Africa Programme, launched in 2002 on the occasion of the canonisation of Josemaría Escrivá, founder of Opus Dei, run by ICU - Istituto per la Cooperazione Universitaria -, to collect funds for development projects in sub-Saharan countries and other parts of the world. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 14/11/2006 - righe 26, parole 357)


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