Blogging their way to Africa

The War Child Challenge has bloggers addressing global youth issues in diverse ways

TORONTO, Nov. 9 /CNW/ - Forget contests that give away cars and dream jobs, the War Child Challenge gives you the chance to report on the extraordinary resilience of Ethiopia's youth. Four digitally savvy and socially conscious young blogging Canadians are socially suiting up for an opportunity of a lifetime that will see one of them join War Child on an upcoming visit to Ethiopia. 

War Child Canada's War Child Challenge has bloggers reporting on a variety of issues to win a ten-day trip with War Child to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.  The challengers are blogging at http://challenge.warchild.ca for the chance to tweet and report on War Child Canada's Ethiopian efforts.

"The War Child Challenge is one example demonstrating War Child's consistent leadership in adopting new social media practices," said James Topham, director of communications, War Child Canada.  "Thanks to funding from the Canadian International Development Agency, the War Child Challenge can illuminate the issues faced in Ethiopia in particular, and the developed world more generally, by communicating on a platform that is much more apt to generate discussion and concern around global youth issues and the Millennium Goals." 

Challengers Joel Kelly (Halifax, NS), Sara Hamil (Belleville, ON), Christine Estima (Toronto, ON) and Ben Boudreau (Halifax, NS) are tackling a variety of multi-media citizen journalism challenges. The War Child Challenge is made up of three main parts: the challenges, vote tallies and post evaluation by a youth jury for clarity, focus, originality and creativity.  The challenges include:

• Creating an image gallery of an event occurring in their community which offers a contribution to overcoming Hunger/Poverty, Conflict, HIV/AIDS, Basic Education, or Gender Equality.
  
  
• Profiling a person or organization in their community who is making a difference in one of the following areas: Hunger/Poverty, Conflict, HIV/AIDS, Basic Education, Gender Equality.
  
  
• Creating a video up to 5 minutes in length that conveys their thoughts, feelings, etc. regarding the global impact of Hunger/Poverty, Conflict, HIV/AIDS, Basic Education, or Gender Equality.
  
  
• Building a feature article which includes video, text, audio and images to tell their story of why they want win the War Child Challenge.

The War Child Challenge officially ends on Monday, December 20.   There are three new challenges to vote for posted today, November 22 and December 6.  For more information, please visit: http://challenge.warchild.ca. 

About War Child
War Child works with children all over the world to reduce the effects of poverty, provide an education and to defend and promote child rights.  

War Child works to help children whose lives have been torn apart by conflict, and provide them with the means to build a brighter future.  War Child works with local people and organizations in Afghanistan, Darfur (Sudan), Uganda, Sierra Leone, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Sri Lanka and Haiti. For more information about War Child please visit www.warchild.ca. 

For further information:

on the challenge, challengers or interview requests with War Child, please contact:

Laura Teed, Hill & Knowlton
416-413-4610
[email protected]