Media successes and migration discussions - BAAG's recent activities.

Following the selection of Mark de Rond and Magda Rakita as the winners of our photojournalism competition in November, both set off to Afghanistan in early December to cover the effects of PTSD among Afghan civilians (pre-trip blog on our website can be found here).They visited Dr Alemi’s psychiatric hospital in Mazar, one of the few facilities in the entire country which treats mental health and sees a staggering 80-120 patients a day. Mark’s full article was published on Huffington Post and can be viewed here. Magda’s moving photos of the doctors and patients were published in the Guardian. Following publication of her photos, Magda did an interview for BBC Pashto and her work was featured by the Open Society Foundation on instagram and Roads & Kingdoms, an award-winning journal. It is expected Magda’s photos will also be published by the IQ Economist Lithuania in their bi-monthly Culture & Lifestyle magazine in June 2016.

The work produced out of Mark and Magda’s trip has sparked interest from the British Council, the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations. They would like to use the story and photos to start a new arts-focused project on mental health in Afghanistan and the UK.  BAAG is currently developing a project proposal with London and Kabul-based British Council staff.

In mid-December we held our second Policy-makers Roundtable which focused on the topic of Afghan migration. More specifically, participants discussed the causes of Afghan migration flows and whether development aid is an appropriate tool for reducing migration and extremism. The full report can be viewed here. Representatives from the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office and UK Department for International Development were among the 19 policymakers and development and migration experts who attended. The report was sent to all members of the APPG Afghanistan, to civil servants in the British and European government and to the EU Parliament. Five M4D partner staff also participated in the event.

In February, BAAG supported the SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London) Afghan Society’s panel discussion on Afghan migration. BAAG’s own Director, Jawed Nader, chaired the panel. Discussions explored the factors leading so many Afghans to migrate to Europe and the implications this may have on Afghanistan in the longer-term. 58% of those who provided feedback on the event indicated the event changed their perception about development issues in Afghanistan for the better.

Last month BAAG sent accomplished British/American journalist, Amie Ferris-Rotman, as an expert speaker to the Journalist Training with VIKES. She was subsequently interviewed in Helsinki by Rudolf Sivy. Amie has previously worked with Reuters in their Moscow bureau and later as Senior Correspondent in Afghanistan. She recently won the Georgina Henry award for her work founding Sahar Speaks, an organistion which trains and mentors Afghan female journalists with the aim of finding them publishing opportunities.

"You should take your western eyeglasses off!"

It was was probably one of the most important messages which could be heard during the seminar Media4Development: Reporting World News. The seminar aiming at young journalists took place in Helsinki, was organised by our local project partner VIKES. Participants from five countries (Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Czechia and Slovakia) participated, including three journalists from three Slovak media outlets.

The general aim of the seminar was to bring more understanding into reporting on developing world. In other words - how to avoid our common biases, stereotypes or even prejudices in reporting - approaches which, if not avoided, construct a distorted image of reality of the reported world. Apart of that they got more into writing on such thematic issues as Sustainable Development Goals, climate change, humanitarian crises, etc.

Journalists from Slovakia - Katarina Kovacova from daily Pravda, Diana Burgerová from press agency SITA and Rudolf Sivy from the online newsportal Aktuality.sk have attended. As a follow-up of the seminar they will travel (within project Media4development) for immersion visits to Nepal and Cuba, to collect stories, which they will later bring to Slovak audience.

However, two outputs were already published also from their Finnish visit. Diana Burgerová had published her interview with Maija Liikkanen, who is running a specialised newspaper section in the largest serious newspaper in Finland - Helsingin Sanomat - aimed at special audience - kids. They can read about issues like climate change or migration in the way they can easily understand. You can read more here in the article named O daňových podvodoch a terorizme si vo Fínsku čítajú v novinách aj deti.

The second output by Rudolf Sivy is an interview with Amie Ferris-Rotman. She is a British journalist who has, apart from many other issues, interviewed Taliban fighter directly in his home environment in Afghanistan. You can read her story in the article named Príbeh odvážnej novinárky: vyspovedala Taliban, v Rusku ju odpočúvali.

Documentary about hydro power plants in Georgia - Our second visit

This time our trip to Georgia was meant to be pretty similar to the last one. Me (editor Anna Gavronski), director Märten Vaher and camera operator Meelis Kadastik were planning to revisit the locations we filmed on our previous visit to Georgia. Because our trip was scheduled to take place in spring, we were hoping to film the high level of water in the rivers. So our main purpose for the second trip was to show the difference in nature and film additional shots for our B-roll.

We arrived in Tbilisi on 30^th of March. On our first day we stayed in Tbilisi to interview an official from European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). We went to their office and met the press person, only to find out that the interviewee had unexpectedly left to Armenia. Unfortunately, we did not have an option to reschedule the interview. Therefore, we spent half of day filming different energy related objects in Tbilisi. In the afternoon, we started heading to mountainous Svaneti area.

On our second day we arrived in the area of Enguri dam. As this year the spring in Georgia was very late, the high waters had not started yet. Instead, the water was extremely low in the Enguri dam. Our guide Dato Chipashvili from an NGO called Green Alternative explained, how he had not seen such a low water level in Enguri before. 

Our director Märten Vaher was very happy, because we managed to record completely different looking Enguri dam compared to the last visit.

We continued our journey to Nakra village, which in the close proximity to planned Nenskra hydro power plant. We met with the local villagers, who spoke about the latest changes and developments in Nenskra project. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has agreed to provide US$200 million for Georgia's 280-MW Nenskra hydropower plant. However, the local population continues to be upset about the project, because they are afraid that new hydro power plant will cause landslides and they are afraid that their homes will be flushed away by mud rivers.

  

For the evening we went to Mestia, which is a beautiful little town between mountains. It was the first time in Georgia, when we saw snowy mountains. We were stunned by the beauty of Georgian nature.

On our third day we went to Chuberi village near Nenskra river, where Dato Chipashvili from Green Alternative met with local people. He was expecting to talk with three or four people, but instead about 70 villagers turned out. This kind of high interest shows that for local people the construction of hydro power plants matter a lot. On one hand, they probably hope that this kind big development will create them new jobs; on the other hand, definitely large hydro power plants have impact on local ecological system. It was weird to see that compared to our last visit, there was only a small bumpy road that took us to the village, but half a year later a newly built super motorway took us to the village. The new road was built because of the planned hydro power plant.

We spent the afternoon in Khaishi, were spoke with the local teacher. He said that there has not been much communication from the builders or the government side. In the evening we drove back to Mestia.

Our fourth day, we started driving back to Tbilisi. We spent the day mostly driving - the distance between Mestia and Tbilisi is 460 kilometres. However, time-to-time we stopped to film some picturesque views. 

On our way, we read from news that war broke out in the nearby in the Nagorno-Karabakh region. As our plans for the last day of trip were quite relaxed, we decided to head towards the conflict area to make a story about the situation there.

On our last day, we headed to Armenia, because Estonians have visa freedom with Armenia and not with Azerbaijan. Hence, our only option to cover the conflict was from Armenian side.

Firstly, we headed to the capital Yerevan, wherewe made a couple of interviews and vox populi. On our way back, we went through the villages on Armenia-Azerbaijan border. This is an area, where in the recent future has been a number of ceasefire violations, but it was relatively calm during the period we were there. In the evening we arrived again in Tbilisi and took the flight back to Estonia.

Social entrepreneurship in Upper East Ghana

Our path led us to Ghana. We - author Meelis Süld and , director/cameraman Kalle Käesel - heard that there is a village named Kongo in the Upper East Region of Ghana which has tight contacts with Estonia. Quite many Estonian volunteers have been helping the village with their knowledge and one of the strategies has been to „give them a hook not a fish“. After a couple of meetings with social entrepreneurship expert of NGO Mondo Diana Tamm and listening her stories of Ghana we decided to go next time together to Kongo village and shoot a documentary film there. 

Women’s gold

Shea butter has been called “women's gold”. Ghana’s land seems to be full both „men’s and women’s gold“. Ghanaian women in the village have the experience how to make shea butter in small quantities for their own use or sell it on local market. Those who don’t know what is shea butter need to study Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shea_butter. I am not big expert in cosmetics and eco products but I have understood that it’s an appreciated component of different creams and can be used naturally as a cream too. Local women use the shea butter also for cooking and nowadays it becomes an alternative for cocoa butter. In fact shea nuts smell like cocoa.

The process of making shea butter

We went to the village to see how this shea butter is produced. Estonians are helping to set up a small shea butter factory there. It is owned by the community and would give casual work for women, especially for widows who are the economically and socially very vulnerable in the village. They need some machines to make the work easier, they need some tips how to make the process cleaner so that it meets international standards and the factory needs to acquire export certificate.

The shea butter is ready

Men’s gold

While women collect shea nuts, crush, roast, grind, wash and boil the “women’s gold” out of shea nuts, men go digging for real gold. They risk with their lives going to old abandoned mines, they risk also by making their own unregistered gold mines with insufficient safety measures. They risk also breaking the laws as gold digging without the license is illegal. Boys and young men stop attending school because the money from gold digging seems to be better foundation to future life.

I was surprised that the machines that men use for crushing and grinding gold-containing stones are very similar to those which women use for making shea butter or vice versa. And I was shocked to see how young men use mercury in gold processing without any gas mask. It seemed that the illegal gold digging and processing is not too strictly controlled. Perhaps because it gives some extra money for the people in the village and the authorities understand that taking away this possibility would cause many other problems. 

The open air kitchen by the street

Weaving baskets

The second project with village widowed women is about making the baskets. The tradition is not really from Kongo village but there are living some women from other areas who pass on this knowledge. Some Estonian designers have been helping to use colors, patterns and basket shapes which would be more attractive to Nordic customers and now local women sell their handcraft to Estonia and get twice more money than they would get from local market, often paid too poorly by the people who buy up at the end of the market day.

The child sleeps while mother is making shea butter

Goat as a deposit

One way of supporting women in the village is to give them a goat. It means that they can start their small farm, though the animals are free range and run around the village among pigs, chicken, calfs, dogs etc. In the beginning one goat is given to three women, and then its baby goats will be given to 2^nd and 3^rd woman. We also bought a goat on the market place and gave it to three widows. Hope they will multiply soon. Women can sell the goat when needed and have some extra money. 

I was surprised how much can be done for the village people with a reasonable amount of efforts and donations. A goat cost 20 euros and this donation improves the economical situation of 3 families for upcoming years. There’s another program by NGO Mondo to support the studies of an African child with 40 euros a year – this donation means that probably the child will not go to gold mines because he has enough money for his or her books and cloths to attend school and stay focused on studies. We can make the world better little by little if we want.

/The author - Meelis Süld/

ERR in Nicaragua

Nicaragua is planning to construct a 277-km long inter oceanic mega-canal that would connect the Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean for ships. For that, the government has signed a contract with a Chinese company The Hong Kong Nicaragua Development (HKND) Group. The concession allows the company to build and operate industrial centers, airports, a rail system and oil pipelines as well as land expropriation and the rights to natural resources found along the canal route. The construction is scheduled to begin in this autumn (2016).

Construction of the canal and the canal itself will change the life of Nicaragua drastically. It will pose threat to local communities, including indigenous groups and will potentially ruin the remains of Nicaragua’s unique wildlife, moreover, the canal will increase the environmental risks for the nation’s largest freshwater reserve, Lake Nicaragua (Lago Cocibolca). The main problem is that no one has ever asked Nicaraguans whether they agree with this comprehensive project. Therefore, this is a perfect example of how people in power of a developing country, ignore opposition and deliberately exploit and sell their nation’s greatest resources at their people’s and environment’s expense.

In March 2016, as a group of three, Ove Musting (director/camera), Jaan Laugamõts (editor/camera) and Sander Loite (author/text editor) we set out for 23 days to discover Nicaragua. Additionally, our team had a great local support thanks to Kimmo Lehtonen as a fixer the journalist from Finland and an expert of Nicaragua and Latin America.

The crew with the chief of village Bankukuk Taik.

Our focus was to record Nicaraguan’s struggle against the mega-project, which is referred to be the world’s biggest earth-moving operation.

During the shoot we covered the areas that will be affected by the canal project. A community of Rama people in Bankukuk Taik of the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua, the rain-forests and animal species under threat, Lake Nicaragua and the Pacific region of Nicaragua. These lands and people will be affected the most if the canal construction proceeds.

Furthermore, this film will feature the work of a young lawyer Monica Lopez Baltodano who lives Managua, capital city of Nicaragua. She is the person giving legal advice to the communities at risk because of the mega-canal project.

This documentary will make one understand the loss that this developing country will face when peoples and environmental interests are suppressed and ignored.

Mondo activities March-April 2016

The main activity in March was the preparation of the study trip to Ghana. The inicial plan was to include one journalist from the Media4Development project and quite as a last minute thing we got the opportunity to involve two policy makers as well. A student and a teacher were also a part of the group, but they were able to participate thanks to a global education project supported by the MFA.

The journalist who travelled to Ghana – Bianca Mikovitš – is working in the biggest agricultural newspaper in Estonia – Maaleht. Maaleht is a part of Ekspress Grupp and is mostly read in the rural areas in Estonia. The topics vary greatly, but are usually somehow linked to agriculture or rural life in general. We contacted Maaleht in the beginning of the M4D project, but at the time they were in the process of changing the head editor, so we were put on hold so to speak. Bianca was very interested in travelling to Ghana from the beginning and keen on learning about the major topics in the area.

The policy makers involved were Henn Põlluaas – member of the parliament and also a member of the foreign commission of the parliament – and Kaili Terras from the MFA.

The preparation process was quick and busy, as ERR's film crew also decided to travel during the same time, so our team was also assisting them with visas, background info and other prep-work.

The trip itself was quite successful and the participants seemed to be satisfied. After a call with Bianca, Aliine learned some things that will come handy when planning a study trip next time.

You can see some pictures from the study trip here and read Bianca's articles here:

• Four articles: http://digileht.maaleht.delfi.ee/elu/eestlaste-abikaed-ulatuvad-ghanasse?id=74143505
• One article: http://maaleht.delfi.ee/news/maaleht/uudised/homses-maalehes-kuidas-henn-polluaas-tegelikult-ghanas-kitse-ostis?id=74296001

In March we also started preparing for the next bulletin (Mondo Arengupoliitika Teataja) that will be printed and distributed in May, aiming for the dates prior to the World Humanitarian Summit. Aliine met with Mati Raidma – a member of the parliament and expert on humanitarian assistance – to discuss the possible articles and stories that would form the core of the new bulletin.


Another preparation that started in March was for Arvamusfestival (Opinion Festival) that will take place in August. Aliine went to the first preparation meeting and also had a chat with ERR's coordinator for Arvamusfestival (Tiit Kimmel) – the panel that will be a part of M4D project will be arranged together with ERR. The panel will focus on media ethics and development.


In April we also posted a public call to look for young journalists who want to take part of the Helsinki training in the end of April. The Facebook post was quite popular and reached 5500 people without an extra boost from our side (our regular reach is around 1000-2000 people). We received 7 applications and chose 4 journalists to take part of the Helsinki training: Piia Puuraid, Anette Parksepp, Madle Timm and Rait Roop.

The Helsinki training was a success (as usual for events arranged by Maiju and VIKES :) ) and the four young journalists from Estonia are really promising journalists with a wide perspective to the world. The first one of the group will already take part of the Palestine study trip in July.

Policy-makers trip to Ghana

NGO Mondo organised a combined policy-makers study trip and educators award trip to Ghana in March 16-26. The participants included Kaili Terras: Head of Development Cooperation Bureau, Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Enn Põlluaas, Member of Estonian Parliament; Bianca Mikovitš, journalist from Maaleht; Viktoria Rudenko, teacher from Pae gymnasium, winner of "School World-day" competition; and Margit Saal, gymnasium student from Otepää gymnasium, winner of student essay competition.

Visiting a cocoa farm in Kumasi

Meeting the Nabdam District administration

The aim of the trip was to get an understanding about the opportunities and constraints for development in an sub-Saharan country and to see how EU and Estonian development cooperation works in practice. During one week the participants had the chance to visit the EC Delegation in Ghana, a cocoa plantation and Kuapa Kokoo fair trade cooperative, Kumasi market as well as Mondo's development cooperation work in Northern Ghana. Mondo has worked for the past 6 years in Nabdam district in Upper-East region close to Burkina Faso border which is the poorest part of the country - lately affected also by desertification caused by climate change. The activities in the community include educational support to primary and secondary students, school linking between schools, income generating activities for women and support to schools and health centres. Estonian teachers, nurses, midwives and designers have served as volunteers in the region. The group had the chance of visiting the District administration, schools, local homes and women's cooperatives. At the same time there was also a film crew from ERR filming a documentary about the shea butter and basket makers cooperatives that Mondo helped to set up recently. The documentary will come out in the autumn.

After the trip the participants have been active in speaking and writing about their experiences in both social and traditional media. A Ghana evening was also organised at Mondo on 22 April to discuss the results of the study trip and Mondo's activities in Ghana.

Hon. MP Henn Põlluaas learning basket weaving

Teacher Viktoria Rudenko giving a class in Kongo JHS