Kilkenny student Karen Reidy has been announced as the winner of the ECHO ‘Crisis Correspondent – Reporting from Uganda’ competition.
The Kilkenny student beat off stiff competition from other students for the opportunity to travel to Africa and record her experiences.
The competition was supported by GOAL and Concern and was open to135,000 third level students in Ireland. Karen won a once in a lifetime trip to Uganda to witness first-hand the humanitarian aid that ECHO is giving to the people there. She was also given a professional video camera to record the experience.
Karen was shortlisted for the competition following her video and written submission, which explained how she would give the survivors of conflict in North Uganda a voice here in Ireland.
Her video received enough votes from the public to make it through to the final where she went up against the three other finalists in front of an expert judging panel. The judges decided that Karen has what it takes to fill the shoes of ECHO ‘Crisis Correspondent’.
More than 200 million people are affected by natural disasters every year, and a further 42 million people are forced to flee their homes due to conflict. ECHO provides help to these people.
Much of the funding goes towards crises that are unreported by the media. ECHO is running the ‘Crisis Correspondent – Reporting from Uganda’ competition to raise awareness of these "forgotten" crises. Third level students were challenged to see how they would report on the crises.
