Announcement of Winner!
The Story of the Human Face: Pacific Youth Journalist Competition for Global Economic Crisis Conference
The Pacific Youth Journalist Competition for the Global Economic Crisis Conference’ sought to encourage young people in the Pacific region to write real stories about how real people in their countries have been affected by the global economic crisis. The aim was to understand in greater depth ‘the human face’ of the crisis, so that responses can address specifically the real issues of real people in the Pacific.
The award for the ‘Story of the Human Face: Pacific Youth Journalist Competition for the Global Economic Crisis Conference’ goes to Ms June Atomea for her story entitled “Silent cry of John the village boy.” Ms June Atomea is 22 years old and comes from North Malaita in the Solomon Islands. Ms June Atomea is currently enrolled at the University of South Pacific in Suva, Fiji.
The winning story is about a 13 year-old boy named John, from a small isolated village in the highlands of North Malaita. John lives together with his seven older siblings and his mother who is the sole breadwinner of the family after the passing of John’s father. John, who is a keen learner, persuaded his parents to send him to school located 16 km away from home, which meant that John has to wake up at 4 o’clock in the morning to reach school in time. It is a struggle for his mother to afford the costs of sending him to school – often John has had to do without lunch, or just dry potato or taro. Despite that, John tops his class until, as the story says, “As a result of the economic hardship, the very bright and promising little John was forced out of school ending his childhood dream of becoming a school teacher one day. There was no other alternative for John so he had to accept his fate.”
The author continues her account:
When I went home at the end of 2009 I had the opportunity to meet John at the village market. One question that he asked which struck me to bone was “ufita na kera sorea financial crisis sui tei wela la village kulu ne’e keka sukulu bada mani nau ka ai?” (Why is that they say it’s the effect of the financial crisis yet some students from the coastal village still attend school but not me). As one of the coastal village students he was referring to, I did not know what to say but when I thought about it I was convinced that this is a time where only the ‘haves’ will survive and the ‘have-nots’ will suffer.
The author makes her point: children and women and those who are already marginalised in society bear the burden of this crisis. She remarks, ”the sad thing about it is that it costs the future of one village boy, and who knows he may be one of the many silent cries of similar nature throughout the Pacific.”
The selection panel found Ms June Atomea’s story most significant because it is clearly time-bound to the global economic crisis. The story vividly describes the complexity of compounding factors that contribute to vulnerability, such as illness, single-parent families, rural isolation, increasing costs of food and commodities, and including the effect of climate change on the food crop productivity. Ms June Atomea emphasises the need to address the deepening inequality within society as the effects of the crisis are felt most significantly by the most vulnerable. The responses to the crisis would thus need equality and social justice as underlying principles to direct initiatives.
Ms June Atomea will travel to Port Vila to collect her prize at the UN Reception on the 10th of February, 2010 from Ms Helen Clark, UNDP Administrator and Chair of United Nations Development Group.
WINNERS OF THE PACIFIC YOUTH JOURNALIST COMPETITION FOR GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS CONFERENCE
1st Ms June Atomea, Solomon Islands
2nd Young person (identity withheld on request), Vanuatu
3rd Ms Kueni Fakatou, Tonga
4th and ‘People’s Choice Award’ Ms Mere Nabukete, Fiji
5th and ‘People’s Choice Award’ Mr Aman Abishek Nath, Fiji
PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD
Ms Mere Nabukete and Mr Aman Abishek Nath - both from Fiji - received exactly the same amount of votes from the online community that could vote for their favourite story on the Facebook-page ‘The Human Face’. Ms Mere Nabukete and Mr Aman Abishek Nath will receive ‘People’s Choice Award’ Certificates and UNICEF Souvenirs.
Visit the Facebook-group 'The Human Face' to read all 5 short-listed stories