BAAG update - competitions and round tables!

In August and September BAAG ran its first ever Afghanistan Journalism Competition.  This formed an important part of our Media4Development programme, funded by the EC.  

We invited journalists and photographers to send us a proposal, outlining an important but under-reported development story from Afghanistan.  We were delighted with the response.  A total of 36 individuals made the effort to research and develop their story ideas, often in paired entries between a journalist and photographer.  Their story suggestions were wide-ranging and inspiring - including how circus programmes develop critical coping mechanisms for Afghan children and their communities, how Afghan women are leading in sports and breaking down social barriers, how Afghans have developed innovative and effecting treatment programmes for drug addicts... all were fascinating stories, all deserved to be told.

The BAAG team and our Media Adviser reviewed all the entries, to create a short-list of 6.  We considered the originality and appropriateness of the story, the experience of the journalists in this subject area and in reporting from conflict-affected countries, the feasibility of gathering source material in Afghanistan during a 7 day trip.  We had hoped to include a leading Afghan photographer, Zalmai, in this stage of the reviewing, but unfortunately he was held up in Istanbul and only able to see a few entries by email before leaving for an assignment.

BAAG gathered together a panel of media experts to judge the shortlisted entries.  Our judges were: leading Afghanistan-focused journalists Emma Graham-Harrison of The Guardian and Ben Anderson of VICE News, award-winning photographer Nick Danziger and founder of the fantastic Kabul at Work multimedia project David Gill, and leading development communications expert and ex-journalist/editor Mark Galloway of the International Broadcasting Trust.  

Over a lively discussion the judges considered a short list of the leading six entries and eventually agreed on our winners.  Mark de Rond and Magda Rakita proposed a moving and interesting story that explores the issue of PTSD amongst Afghan civilians.  PTSD is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.  Much has been written in the Western press about the terrible impact the Afghanistan war has had on the NATO soldiers who have served in the country, and the support they receive back home should they be diagnosed with PTSD. In comparison little is reported on how 30+ years of continuous conflict, instability and horrific human rights violations have affected the civilian population.  Whilst some excellent work is being delivered in mental health treatment in Afghanistan, these programmes are few and far between.  

BAAG are now working with Mark and Magda to plan their trip to Afghanistan later this year.  We're working with our own Member organisations (NGOs who run programmes in Afghanistan) and with Afghan civil society and media contacts.  The aim is for a 7-9 day trip to Afghanistan for both winners, supported by BAAG staff, in early December - this will be to gather the required interviews, research and photographs for a final piece of development journalism to be published by end of 2015. We're looking forward to Mark and Magda telling their important story to the European public, and in doing, raising the need for continued support to Afghanistan and it's battle-scarred but resilient and hopeful people.  

Our other activity in the last month or so has been planning BAAG's 2nd policy-maker round table of the year.  We approached RUSI, ODI and Chatham House over the summer to see if they would partner with us, and in October we agreed to partner with RUSI.  We have been considering the theme of the event.  Given the increasingly difficult migrant and refugee crisis in Europe, we have decided to focus the event on this.  The precise theme and question is still being developed, by the BAAG team and RUSI and we'll consult with migration and development experts to finalise that.

The policy-makers round table will be held in London on December 16th, from 9am to 12.30pm.  We aim to have 10 policy makers (civil servants and MPs) present, along with development and migration experts.  One attendee will be an Afghan who we will bring over to London for the event. 

What is the role of European development cooperation in the Palestinian communities - does it have any effect at all, if Israeli government fails to alter its policies towards Palestine?

It was calm. There were no clashes in Palestine at the time we started to plan our trip to Palestine in the beginning of 2015. In summer the daily temperature in Palestine rises over 40C, so we decided to shoot our documentary in autumn, when the weather in Palestine is cooler and tolerable for Estonians, the olive picking season also flattered us.

We communicated with the Estonian NGOs, which have mediated volunteers to Palestine. As a result we became friends with Estonian volunteers who had worked in Palestine before. Using Skype and Facebook we made friends with people from Palestine, with the possible participants for our documentary, throughout spring and summer.

It was restless and bloody, the tensions between Israel and Palestine had rose to a high level, while the trip, we had planned earlier, actually started October 10th.

The wave of Palestinians knife attacks towards Israeli soldiers and settlers started in October - during one month Palestinians killed 11 Israelis, mostly using knives. On the other hand, Israeli forces shot dead 66 Palestinians in October. The frustration in Palestinian society has accumulated through the decades. The Israeli occupation and building of Israeli settlements at the West Bank continues, peace talks got stuck, the concrete barriers and checkpoints separate people from their work, families and the world outside.

This time the clashes were detonated by rumours that Israel plans to take over Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem which is a holy place for Palestinian Muslims. There is a lively discussion among Palestinians if these clashes are the start of the third intifada (third uprising) or not. Most commentators point out that this time Palestinians use knives and stones instead of guns and bombs. There is no organisation behind the attackers, they are not connected to any movement and they act on personal initiative. This is different from the previous uprisings.

We can not bypass Palestinians fight for their freedom and the conflict between Israel and Palestine while making a documentary about development cooperation in Palestine. This feeling got support from the real life we saw in Palestine while we arrived. So we started shooting and finding the answers to questions: How the conflict and isolation affect different generations in Palestine? What is the role of EU development cooperation in the Palestinian communities, does it have any effect at all, if Israeli government fails to alter its policies towards Palestine?

Our team – author Arp Müller, director Mati Kark, cameraman Priit Vehm – arrived to the capital of the Palestinian Authority, to Ramallah October 11th. On our way we saw through our eyes and through the camera lens tall and grey concrete walls, kilometres by kilometres, separating the communities. We saw fires made of old tires, Palestinian youngsters throwing stones towards Israeli soldiers and soldiers shooting tear gas grenades and rubber bullets near the checkpoints and Israeli settlements all around Ramallah. At the same time quite normal life continued at the centre of Ramallah – girls and boys were jogging ignoring the smell of tear gas which covered the whole city, men and women were chatting and spending time at the bars and drinking beer. Young Estonian women – Maarja, Helle-Mari and Helena – helped us to adjust in this environment.

We had an opportunity to join with the press trip organised for German journalists by EU representation in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. I would like to express my thanks to communications officer Shadi Othman from EU representation who has helped several Estonian journalists during their visits to Palestine.

With a help of a 3 day fully scheduled press trip we got huge amount of information and different views about the social and political situation in Palestine. We met the director of the Media Center of Palestinian government Ehab Bessaiso, we met the former presidential candidate Mustafa Barghouti and we made acquaintance with Jalazone refugee camp from 1948. We attended excursion headed by the former Israeli soldier, front-man of Israeli NGO Breaking The Silence Nadav Weiman to the former main market street of Hebron, where Palestinians are now prohibited to walk. It is worth to mention that our excursion fell under the attack of Israeli settlers who kicked our cameraman with a leg. We were shown several projects of EU development cooperation – for example advancing the rights and living conditions of Palestinian inhabitants in Eastern Jerusalem; for example cow farm, dairy house and community center at the village Beit Duqqu. Some young Palestinian journalists also attended the press trip. We experienced the everyday tragic through communicating with them. We saw, how reacted Young radio journalist Rama, while she read news from social network that one of her best friends has committed an attack toward Israelis and as a consequence was shot dead.

We moved forward from Ramallah to the small city Tubas at the north of Palestine. It is much more conservative area than Ramallah. All the women of Tubas cover their hair, You can not buy alcohol from the shop. We were greeted by a local peace activist and school headmaster Yalal Khudairy, an agriculture businessman Mohammad Shraim and a lawyer and basketball coach Abedalraziq Dragmah. These men founded NGO Al Okhuwa and made cooperation with several volunteer English teachers from Estonia. Our initial plan, while we were still in Estonia, was to go with a camera to the local school and follow the children learning English with the teacher from Estonia. At the last moment it came out that the volunteer from Estonia who planned to continue the project in Tubas this autumn, did not have an opportunity to make it, because of organisational obstacles. Ministry of Education of the Palestinian Authority also rejected our appeal to shoot a documentary at the Boys Elementary Shool in Tubas. This was a fallback for us.

At this point our team made a decision to depict the situation in Palestine through the short stories, through short essays. We decided to tell a story of a peace activist and school headmaster, who lost his brother and sister by Israeli bomb 1967, but despite joining a terrorist organisation for revenge he started a peace organisation and talks about the need for conciliation. We tell about the children who were born in refugee camp and who throw stones at Israeli soldiers.

We will tell a story about Jayyous farmer Shareed Khaleev. He is famous, because he won Israeli state at the Israeli Supreme Court. The state of Israel was forced to demolish and move to another place so called security wall which did not let him to harvest his olive trees. At his farm we also met a Jewish volunteer Anat Zohari who helps Palestinian farmers at the olive picking season every year in order to show that not all Israelis support the occupation at the West Bank. Anat explained us, how Israelis also would benefit if the occupation at the West Bank would end.

We decided that through this kind of stories we can explain to the TV-watchers, why the member states of EU support Palestinians with more than billion euros annually. Through this kind of personal stories we will explain, how does the support from the EU and Estonia, money and development cooperation programs, affect local people. We would like to achieve that after watching our documentary no viewer will blame our government because of sending money and people to help Palestinians. We will show Palestinian people's experience and hopes connected to the ongoing EU development projects.

On the last week of our trip we came back to Jerusalem, where we had several appointments and interviews, for example with the head of EU representation in the West Bank and the Gaza strip Ralph Tarraf. Throughout our preparations in Estonia and trip in Palestine we tried to find also any Israeli settlers from West Bank settlements (considered illegal by UN and EU) who would agree to talk with us in front of the camera. At last we succeeded and visited and interviewed a rabbi at Alon Shvut settlement.

In the end of our trip we have almost 30 hours of material. Day before flying back through Tel Aviv Ben Gurion airport we rewarded us with couple of hours sunbathing and swimming at the beach of Tel Aviv.

Documentary about hydro power plants in Georgia

Our journey began on 1st of October as we, Anna Gavronski, Märten Vaher and Meelis Kadastik, headed to mountainous Svaneti region. From the very beginning we were amazed by the beauty of Georgian nature.  High mountains and turquoise blue rivers- in Estonia we can only dream about these kind of natural miracles. 

After five-hour drive from Tbilisi we arrived at the Enguri dam, the world’s second highest dam of its kind. We were stunned, the concrete arch was gigantic, its height is 271.5 meters. The chief engineer Levan Chanturia showed us around in the hydro power plant and head of the dam Jonu Chania explained us the problems they are facing. Our guide Dato Chipashvili from an NGO called Green Alternative explained, how in his opinion the old dam could be made more effective.

On our second day, we headed even further north to Khudoni area. There we saw some ruins of the Khudoni dam, which they started building during Soviet times. However, the dam was never finished. In addition, we met with the people from Kutaisi village. They are very upset about the plans to restart the building of Khudoni hydro power plant. If that plan goes through a lot of people would have to be resettled.The men of Kutaisi even made an oath to protect their home no matter what. We were very moved by their passionate approach- it was possible to see that these people really love the land they live on.

On our way we saw loads of farm animals on the road we were driving. This kind of sight would be unimaginable in Estonia.  Especially it is impossible to see pigs, because Estonia is fighting African swine fever for years, so all the remaining pigs are kept in closed areas. Hence it was very refreshing to see pigs and we made a task of making a selfie with a pig- we were successful.

On 3rd of October, we went to see Nenskra river and the area where another power plant is planned to be built. According to some sources, this would be the largest hydro power plant built in Georgia since the collapse of Soviet Union. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has agreed to provide US$200 million for Georgia's 280-MW Nenskra hydropower plant. On the other hand, people from Nakra village are afraid that their homes will be flushed away by a mud river. We filmed the Nakra villagers showing us the mud river, when it suddenly started raining heavily. However, the villagers did not care about the pouring rain, they continued showing us the problematic area. These scenes were very moving.

These first days were full of crossing very dangerous looking wooden bridges. I must say, that these bridges were very scary and probably the least enjoyable part of the whole trip. However, we got some really good shots thanks to these crossings.

On the day forth, we started driving back to Tbilisi. The 330 kilometre journey took us more than half a day. One our way we stopped to film one of the oldest power plants in Georgia. The situation there looked miserable- no one was taking care of the hydro. Even Enguri dam looked new compared to the small old hydro.

On Monday we drove 160 kilometres away from Tbilisi toDariali, the area on the northern border of Georgianext to Russia. This is a place were construction works of another hydro power plant are taking place on Tergi river. However, the project is controversial- last year the construction area was hit twice by a mudflow river. These catastrophes left several people dead and missing. We managed to find a border guard who witnessed one of those disasters. She said that she is still thinking about the disaster and she is afraid of it all happening again.

In addition, we went to visit Aragvi and Paravani hydro power plants, where we managed to interview the directors of the plants. On our last days we stayed in Tbilisi, where we filmed the everyday life of our guide Dato Chipashvili. Besides that our director managed to get stuck in toilet- fortunately, the operation of his releasing was quite successful and he got out of cubicle in less than half an hour.

On our final day at four o’clock in the afternoon we got a call from the Ministry of Energy. We had been asking for an interview with the minister of energy Kakha Kaladze for the last two months. And then on the afternoon of our final day, they asked us to come urgently to the ministry for the interview. We rushed through the city in the speed of ambulance. Finally, there he was the famous football player/minister. We got the desired interview and were ready to fly back to home after accomplishing all our goals.

EYD 2015 at Gymnazium Golianova Nitra

European Year for Development arrived in the high school Gymnazium Golianova Nitra on September 22, 2015.  

25 students from classes 3 A and 28 from 3 B gathered to listen to presentations by Tatiana Kobidova from the Europe Direct Nitra and Dagmar Mekinova from the Slovak Platform of NGDOs.

Tatiana Kobidova introduced EU as the biggest world's aid donor and screened a short video covering the project of the association Človek v ohrození (People in Peril) thanks to which a school was built in Afghanistan.

Dagmar Mekinova talked about members of the Platform and their work in the field of development cooperation, humanitarian aid and global education, achievements of Millennium Development Goals, presented 17 Sustainable Developing Goals and presented year 2015 as the year of three summits important for development: in July, Addis Ababa - Financing for Development; in September, New York: Sustainable Development Summit and in December, Paris: World Climate Summit.

She also explained what ODA means and that promises of rich countries to give 0,7 (0,15) % of their GNI as official international development aid annually are met only by four European countries. On the base of the case study from Zambia by Action Aid explained how multinational companies avoid paying taxes and deprive less developed countries of important financial source.

She also introduced the Platform campaign for a fairer world ZI FER (LIVE FAIR) and ways how everybody can join it as a responsible inhabitant and consumer.