I was reading an interesting article just now ... Western reporters in Africa struggle over when to help .
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA – It was three school-age siblings, orphaned by AIDS and fending for themselves in rural Swaziland, who were the last straws. They finally made Canadian reporter Stephanie Nolen question the age-old journalistic principle of not giving help to people she encounters while reporting.
Every morning these kids, whom Ms. Nolen met last year, would put on their school uniforms and stand outside their home, watching other children go to school. They couldn't follow because they didn't have money for school fees.
Years of seeing such situations finally got to Nolen. During a "somewhat sleepless night," she argued with herself: "I can't do this, it's a slippery slope." But in the morning she made a beeline for an ATM and withdrew $150, enough for all three to go to school for a year.
1 comment:
This is indeed a very tricky issue.Lately I have seen the series of a flemish journalist Annemie Struyf who adopted a baby in Kenia while on assignment for a book "Mijn status is positief".(about AIDS).She went back to document her daughter's first months.She made some real statements through the words of a lady she met there.Having been to RSA twice I was told that buying a school uniform was paying tuition.Which is a small sum.Which many can't pay.
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