Simon Cumbers

Two student journalists will travel to Tanzania and Uganda to produce a radio documentary and newspaper article after being named overall winners of the first Simon Cumbers Media Fund Student Competition, which is supported by Irish Aid.

Jekaterina Saveljeva, who studies Print Journalism at Ballyfermot College of Education and Sarah Moyles, a student of Journalism and New Media at the University of Limerick won the 2012 competition.

Jekaterina Saveljeva won the print award for her proposal to travel to Tanzania to write about the care of vulnerable orphans. She will be mentored by the Irish Times over the course of her project. The broadcast award was won by Sarah Moyles, who will travel to Uganda to explore the use of comedy in raising awareness of development issues. She will be mentored by Newstalk.

Minister for Trade and Development Joe Costello congratulated the two students:

“I would like to congratulate Jekaterina and Sarah for their winning entries, which combined creativity and originality with a good understanding of development issues . They now have the opportunity to travel to a developing country and report on the progress being achieved, but also the challenges which continue to face communities in some of the world’s poorest countries.

I believe that it is crucial that we seek to understand the global challenges that affect so many of our fellow human beings, but also have implications for our future.  The media has a key role in this. I would like to thank our media partners, the Irish Times and Newstalk for giving their time and expertise to mentoring the winning students.”

Jekaterina Saveljeva said:

“This is a great opportunity for me to further my career and interest in development issues, but also to bear witness to the plight of vulnerable orphans and the work of those in developing countries who give freely of their time to these children.”

Sarah Moyles said:

“I want to explore how people in Uganda – a country which has seen so much conflict – can laugh and see the bright side of life. I would like to thank the Simon Cumbers Media Fund for their support and also my family, friends, lecturers and fellow journalists at the University of Limerick.”

Full details of the scheme are available at: www.simoncumbersmediafund.ie/students.

For further information on Irish Aid visit www.irishaid.gov.ie

Contact: Catherine Heaney / Cliona Doyle, DHR Communications, Tel: 01-4200580 / 087-2309835 / 087-4116081

Note to Editors:

• The Simon Cumbers Media Fund was established by Irish Aid in memory of Irish journalist Simon Cumbers, who was killed in Saudi Arabia while working with the BBC in 2004.  The fund is designed to promote more and better quality coverage of development issues in the Irish media.
• The new student scheme, which is being piloted for the 2011/2012 academic year, was introduced to give students a greater understanding of development issues.
• Irish Aid is the Government’s overseas aid programme. The aid programme is located in the Development Cooperation Division of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
• The winners were decided by panel of judges, which included representatives from the Irish Times and Newstalk, Irish Aid, the media and members of the Simon Cumbers family.

• In addition to securing a budget to cover travel and accommodation costs, the successful students will be offered guidance and one-to-one mentoring from journalists within two of Ireland’s leading media organisations: Newstalk Producer Susan Cahill and The Irish Times’ Foreign Policy Editor, Paddy Smyth.