UNICEF NZ writing award goes to Fairfax journalist

UNICEF NZ (UN Children’s Fund)
Media Release

UNICEF NZ writing award goes to Fairfax journalist

Wellington, 4 February 2011. -- A journalist with the Waikato Times newspaper has scooped up a UNICEF NZ award for her story about the impact of malaria in the developing world.

Nicola Brennan’s story, titled “A few dollars can save lives” won the 2010 UNICEF NZ Journalism Award. The award encouraged NZ journalists to report on issues facing children in developing countries and UNICEF’s role in helping those children. This includes the impact of emergencies and disasters on children, as well as day-to-day issues facing children in the developing world.

The winning article was published in the Waikato Times, as well as sister Fairfax newspapers, the Manawatu Standard, Nelson Mail, and Timaru Herald.

Nicola’s article highlighted malaria’s huge impact in the developing world, where one million people – most of them children under five – die from it every year. Almost 90 per cent of those affected live in sub-Saharan Africa.

The article profiled a New Zealander who contracted malaria while volunteering with a non-government development group in Zambia. Nicola also interviewed UNICEF Nigeria’s chief of health and nutrition, who noted that malaria is the number one killer disease in that country.

Readers were told how they could help in the fight against malaria by becoming part of UNICEF’s Under Cover movement to provide life-saving mosquito nets for millions of people. New Zealanders can still buy a bed net for just $11 online at www.unicefundercover.org.nz

Nicola has worked in journalism for five years, the past two-and-half years at the Waikato Times, where she is deputy chief reporter. Nicola previously worked at the Gisborne Herald and for an Australian newspaper.

Says Nicola: “I have worked overseas in both Sri Lanka and Indonesia, and have seen first-hand the work UNICEF does and the changes it can make.”

UNICEF NZ marketing and fundraising manager, Ellen Voller, says that Nicola’s article was a well-written and vivid piece of journalism that helped readers understand the impact and extent of the malaria problem in the developing world.

The award was decided by independent judges Associate Professor Margie Comrie of Massey University and Associate Professor Jim Tully, of the University of Canterbury.

ENDS

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