Two competitions – photo and article, – launched
earlier this summer, were marked by very active participation and numerous
quality works received. The majority of the works addressed development issues
in Africa and Asia, while only a few of them were related to the urgent issues
in the neighbourhood countries. Both professionals and amateurs competed there
and, surprisingly, non-professionals were awarded best prizes.
Photo Competition
In total, 49 authors sent in their photo
stories to the photo competition The
World as You See It (over 300 photos) that disclose the invisible life of
people living in developing countries.
1st prize winner Akvilė Norkutė was awarded for
revealing the reality and living conditions of people in Indonesia, Mauritania,
Mali and Myanmar. Akvilė‘s photos tells about hygienic and environmental
problems, dangerous and toxic working conditions as well as a lack of food
because of foreign industries activities. In the picture the worker is using a
metal tool for splitting the sulphur, which has flown from the ceramic pipes.
Not only are the fumes irritating eyes and blocking respiration, but are highly
toxic as well and most of the workers have no special safety gear.
Akvilė Norkutė, 2013, Indonesia. Competition "The World as You See It" photo
2nd prize winner Berta Tilmantaitė highlights the
difficulties faced by sea nomads in the coral triangle of Malaysia because of
civilization and globalization processes. She delivered her stories in Kaunas
at the opening of the exhibition there to around 40 persons.
Berta Tilmantaitė, 2013, Malaisia. Competition "The World as You See It" photo
3rd prize winner Saulius Damulevičius reveals
perverted system of people enslaved by poverty. In the picture a local person
is searching for “minerals” in the dumping while foreign corporations export
the real treasures of Sierra Leone – diamonds.
Saulius Damulevičius. 2014. Siera Leone, Kingtom, Freetown.
The photo exhibition was opened with an award
ceremony held at Ad Hoc: Inconvenient
Films documentary film festival on 16 October (with around 300
participants).
The exhibition is touring around Lithuania. It
has been exhibited in Vilnius (“Multikinas”, at the international conference on
cooperation in development held by MFA, EC Information Centre), Klaipėda (Culture
Factory), Kaunas (Vytautas Magnum University).It is planned to move exhibition to
different public places until the end of the year and beyond.
Some of the works were published on the national
news portal 15min.ltand in the booklet of the international conference on development. The photo
gallery is also available online.
Interviews with all of the winners were published
in the news portal 15min and
broadcast in the program Good morning,
Lithuania on the National TV Channel. Additionally, Berta’s exclusive
interviews were broadcast in the
national TV program Style as well as
on the National Radio Station.
Article Competition
There were 23 articles submitted to the article competition.
Works of journalists varied not only in their content, but also in the range of
their formats: besides written articles, there wereaudio reportagesas well as documentaries.
1st prize winner Vaida Blažytė gives
her insights into the problems faced by albino communities in Tanzania and
their attempts to overcome the superstitions of the public.
2nd prize was awarded to Berta Tilmantaitė for
her story about sea nomads living in a coral triangle in Malaysia where
they meet the challenges of human rights, food safety, education, health
security, accommodations, migration and environmental security.
3rdprize was granted to Paulius Ramanauskas bringing
home the dangerous experiences of individual refugees that they undergo on their
way to Europe.
The award ceremony is due in early December,
followed by the gathering of competition participants, journalists and development
experts as well as an informal round
table discussions.
Selected articles will be published in
Lithuanian daily Lietuvos žinios and portal
15min.lt.
The first prize winners of both competitions
are awarded a study trip to Kenya due in January-February 2016.
Study Trips by Journalists
Rosita Garškaitė from national daily Lietuvos žinios and Vaida Pilibaitytė from
National Radio Station visited Kiev in late September to take interviews from
Ukrainian publicists such as Vitalij Portnikov, about current situation in Ukraine
and the impact of revolution, which according to him not only helped to form the political nation of Ukraine, but also stimulated
the development of country and the improvement of the living conditions of its
people.
Rosita Garškaitė together with an international group of journalists from
project countries visited Nigeria to investigate the damages made by the oil-spill
more than ten years ago, however, still vital for Ogoni community, and drastic
government response to the protests of local leaders resulting in their
executions. The visit was organized by project partner, Finnish organization VIKES.
Rosita Garškaitė during the visit to Nigeria, Goi.
The crew from Lithuanian TV Channel LTV visited Lebanon to record the situation
of Syrian refugees there and highlight the causes underlying them.During their
stay there daily briefs were published on the website of the channel.
LTV visit to Lebanon.
Independent photo journalist Berta Tilmantaitė in
Kenya recorded photo stories of local beekeepers and fishermen. The works will
be published later this year in printed and social media.
Berta Tilmantaite in Kenya. M4Dproject. Photo by Karolis Pilypas Liutkevičius
The visits are publicized in Lithuanian
electronic and printed media. It is accompanied by social media campaign
educating about the developing countries, e.g. graphical posts about Nigeria with illustrated
facts about Nigerian social, economic and cultural realities.
