Celebrate Christmas - and help those who flee conflict and famine
Victims of the World's most severe food crisis
Hosted by: AIIA NSW in Sydney
The event will start on: Tuesday, 06 December 2011 6:00 PM
And will end on: Tuesday, 06 December 2011 8:00 PM
At The Glover Cottages, Sydney
Posted by: nsw
This is our final meeting for 2011, in a year that has been dominated by discussion about asylum seekers and refugees.
At this meeting, our focus will not be on boat people or people smugglers - or the jostling over policy between Australia’s major political parties - but on a part of the world where the problems are much more enduring than on our own shores.
The worst drought for 60 years has created the world’s most severe food crisis in East Africa. A quarter of Somalia’s population (7.5m) are estimated to have been displaced and more than 12 million people are currently in need of urgent humanitarian assistance. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) is on the ground delivering life-saving emergency relief to the hundreds of thousands fleeing conflict and famine.
A combination of unrelenting and violent conflicts across the region has been compounded by the drought making those already suffering extremely vulnerable to food insecurity.Unprecedented levels of malnutrition are noted among new arrivals to the camps with families telling UNHCR teams horrific stories of young children dying of starvation and exhaustion on their journey to reach safety.
In the spirit of Christmas, we will devote the proceeds of our final meeting to these efforts, as we hear from Thomas Mukoya, an African photojournalist of what he has seen in the last two years. The meeting will be held in association with Australia for UNHCR, who have arranged Thomas Mukoya’s visit.
Thomas Mukoya is a Nairobi-based Kenyan photojournalist who has worked with Thomson Reuters, the world’s largest international news agency, since 2004 and currently supervises the coverage in 18 Eastern Africa countries.
Thomas is also the secretary of the Photojournalist’s association of Kenya (PAK).
Thomas has travelled widely across Africa covering breaking news and feature stories from Kenya, Somalia, Congo, Sudan, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Rwanda, Comoros, Djibouti, Malawi and the “2010 Fifa World Cup” in South Africa and the “Walk to Independence” in South Sudan. His last major assignment was documenting the drought and famine story in the Horn of Africa in 2011.
After graduating with a diploma in journalism from the Kenya Institute of Mass Communication, Thomas began his photojournalism career at The People Daily Newspaper in 2002, and joined The Nation Media Group (the largest media group in East and Central Africa) in 2004. He won the 2010 Photographers Giving Back (PGB) award and the 2003 Photojournalist of the year award organized by the Kenya Union of Journalists (KUJ).
He has worked extensively with humanitarian organizations in the as a photographer including MSF, UNICEF, ICRC, UNHCR, and Australia for UNHCR. Thomas has recently travelled to Somalia and neighbouring countries and will be able to share fresh insights from the field.
As it is the AIIA NSW Christmas Party, entrance fee for members will be waived. We will, however, be asking for donations to the UNHCR.
Visitors: $20.00 Senior Visitors: $15.00 Student Visitors: $10.00
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