Humanitarian Reporting Award 2013 – Deadline Extended
31 August 2013

Zimbabwe faces humanitarian challenges that until recently have not been receiving much coverage due to lack of adequate media attention; a situation the Humanitarian Information Facilitation Centre (HIFC) is addressing through its mentorship programme. Further, donor attention has shifted from Zimbabwe to other crises for various reasons. It is with this in mind that HIFC and OCHA have initiated media awards for humanitarian reporting in the country. This is done as part of efforts to encourage journalists to cover humanitarian issues. The winning journalists will be announced and receive their awards at belated World Humanitarian Day (WHD) commemoration. WHD was declared in 2008 and is marked on the 19th of August annually. It was first commemorated in 2009 but is still not widely known. Consequently, it has not received much media and public attention. The awards therefore serve the dual purpose of bringing attention to humanitarian issues currently affecting Zimbabwe and the importance of World Humanitarian Day.

Objectives
-To encourage media coverage of humanitarian issues affecting Zimbabwe
-To commemorate World Humanitarian Day
-To raise awareness of WHD and the humanitarian work being done in Zimbabwe
-To highlight new/innovative humanitarian projects in Zimbabwe

Eligibility criteria
The contest will be open to all journalists who are based in Zimbabwe regardless of whether they are working for the print, electronic or web-based media.  Only stories of a humanitarian nature will be considered for the competition. Humanitarian issues will be defined within the scope of the cluster system and the work of humanitarian clusters in Zimbabwe.

Categories
-Print
-Broadcast- Radio And Tv (Audio And Visual)
-Online
-Gender Award (Gender should be within a humanitarian context)

Submissions
The submission of entries has been extended to 31 August 2013, to allow for receipt of more entries.
Only one submission per journalist will be accepted.
Only stories from August 2012 to date will be considered.
Only submissions made through the following ways within the stipulated dates will be accepted:

Electronically through an email address that has been created for this competition: humanitarianawardzim2013 [at] gmail [dot] com

Or

Delivery of articles in a sealed envelope clearly marked Humanitarian Reporting Awards 2013 Zimbabwe (specify category) to the HIFC offices at: 38 Harvey Brown Avenue, Milton Park, Harare Zimbabwe

Adjudication
The adjudication process will take place soon after the closing date, 31 August 2013. The judges shall remain anonymous and their names will be made public on the day of the awards.

Prizes
The prizes will be announced and awarded to the winning journalists during the 2013 belated World Humanitarian Day commemoration.

Source: This isn’t happiness

A home filled with nothing but yourself. It’s heavy, that lightness. It’s crushing, that emptiness. – Margaret Atwood, The Tent

Ms. Burns, he added, did not really believe that technical expertise was essential to creativity, partly because technology is continually changing. Another reason, Mr. O’Sullivan said with a laugh, was that “she really had zero technical aptitude.”

“To me, the computer is just another tool,” Ms. Burns once said. “It’s like a pen. You have to have a pen, and to know penmanship, but neither will write the book for you.”

Read the New York Times obituary; Red Burns, an educator who gained wide recognition for pushing for more creative uses of modern communications, helping to lead the movement for public access to cable television and starting a celebrated New York University program to foster Internet wizards.