One Wild Life- Coming in April

One Wild Life, published by The Collins Press, will be on shelves in bookshops nationwide in early April.

I now blog at: www.claremulvany.com/blog

Some Updates

It has been a while, and this blog has been very silent. But life, thankfully, has not been silent. I am delighted to announce a few developments.


Book:

A book of my travels entitled 'One Wild Life- A journey to discover people who change our world', is due to be published in April 2009. The book will include extracts from this blog, full colour photographs and interview transcriptions selected from my travels. The Collin's Press are the publishers and I am delighted to have this opportunity to work with them to promote the stories in these wonderful social entrepreneurs. The book will be available nationwide in Ireland, and for purchase on the web. More updates soon...


Travels back to Uganda:

In July of this year, I returned to Uganda for a month, to revisit some of the social entrepreneurs I previously met, and also to do some further photography work. A series of those articles and images were published on SpunOut.ie

(Thanks to the Simon Cumbers Media Challenge Fund who supported this work)

Arising out of that trip, I had an opportunity also to spend time with Hospice Uganda- a palliative care organsiation whose work I first came across through my good friend, Dr. Ita Harnett. I spent two days with Hospice, photographing their work. The images, I am glad to report, are now being used to promote the great work of hospice, and an exhibition of images will be displayed at Hospice Africa Ireland’s launch in Dublin later this month.

(photos from my trip can be viewed on my flickr account here

New Social Entrepreneurs Awardees announced by Social Entrepreneurs Ireland:

The 2008 Annual Social Entrepreneur Ireland awards were announced last week in Dublin.
I continued my ‘WDYDWYD?’ series of portraits for SEI, which can be seen on the main page of their website and were displayed at the award ceremony.


Suas:
Suas continues to grow and expand. I was involved in designing an exhibition to celebrate the work of the 2008 Suas volunteers, which was held in Dublin’s Royal College of Physicians. Taking ‘Education’ and ‘Partnership’ as the central themes, the exhibition incorporated elements of jigsaws, magnetic letters, blackboards to convey a sense of creating new educational pictures for Suas’ partners overseas through the work of the volunteer programme.

Relaunch and revamp.
Spring clean is coming late this year. But this blog and topics are undergoing some transformation… watch this space for further updates.

Until soon,

Clare.

June 12th is World Day Against Child Labour

Approximately 218 million children worldwide are involved in child labour. That is about 14% of 5 to 17 year olds globally, or roughly one in seven children. It is simply too many.

To raise awareness of the issue, and to promote schooling as the right alternative, Concern has launched www.tinypickers.com, the website of a fictional company which is being investigated due to their suspected use of child labour.

As Concern’s site explains:

‘Concern's Stop Child Labour campaign wants you to help give children back their childhood and give them the opportunity to go to school.

So next time you pick up a bar of chocolate, a pack of coffee, or a cotton t-shirt, ask your retailer if the product contains traces of child labour.

Because at the end of the day, any product made using child labour, no matter what it looks like or what price it is, will leave a bad taste in your mouth’


It is an innovative campaign, and certainly one very powerful message.

Free Film Screeings- Moving World

(taken from the Irish Film and Television Network website (IFTN)- I saw two shorts last week from the initiative, which were really interesting... )

A series of free film screenings and workshops on the themes of migration and dislocation is taking place in Dublin as part of the Moving Worlds: Cinemas of Migration Film Season from 22nd May – 10th July 2008.

‘Moving Worlds’ is an initiative of FOMACS (Forum on Migration and Communications, DIT) in partnership with Create, the national development agency for collaborative arts, the Instituto Cervantes, Goethe Institut and Austrian Embassy. The film season aims to highlight comparative stories of migration and transcultural film production.

Films set to screen include Robert Rae’s ‘Trouble Sleeping’, on 5th June, which tells the story of a group of refugees, one of whose survival depends on the revelation of a friend’s closely guarded secret. Director Robert Rae will be present at the screening along with Helen Trew, Community Producer, and Ghazi Hussein, scriptwriter, to introduce the film. Rae will conduct a workshop on collaborative filmmaking from on 6th June from 10 am – 12pm.

US directors Shari Robertson and Michael Carnerini’s ‘Well Founded Fear’, a documentary about the American political asylum system, will screen on the 12th June. The directors will host a workshop on the Epidavros Film Project and their forthcoming documentary series, ‘How Democracy Works Now’, on 13th June from 10am-12pm.

Other films to screen include Christian Wagner’s ‘Ghettokids’ (Germany), Nick Broomfield’s ‘Ghost’ (UK ) and Rabah Ameur-Zaime’s ‘Wesh Wesh, qu’est ce qui se passé?’ (France)

Film screenings and workshops will take place in the Goethe Institut, Merrion Square and Instituto Cervantes, Lincoln Place.

To reserve places film screenings or book places for the various workshops, contact series coordinator Dr. Rashmi Sawhney at the Centre for Transcultural Research and Media Practice, Dublin Institute of Technology by e-mail rashmi.sawhney@dit.ie or telephone on 01-4023108.

For a full programme, dates and locations go to www.create-ireland.ie

Kila for Gatoto

Ronan O Snodaigh of acclaimed Irish band Kila, will tonight play a fundraising gig in aid of Gatoto Community Primary School in Kenya at The Village, Wexford St, Dublin.

Tickets: 20 Euro
Doors open, 7.30pm

Gatoto is one of the partner schools of Suas.


http://www.thevillagevenue.com/

Cluster Bombs and the Portraits of Impact

It almost seems wrong to call Alison Locks’ photographs ‘beautiful’, but that they are. Poised, elegant, and respectful, they allow light itself to take on character, somehow giving the subjects room to be present in the images. What is not beautiful however is the subject matter itself. ‘What Remains’ is an exhibition detailing the impact of cluster bombs on the lives of people in counties affected. Working alongside filmmaker Chris Anderson, Locke travelled to nine countries to document and allow the camera to bear witness to the impact of cluster bombs, as part of Landmine Action, a UK based NGO’s campaign to ban the use of cluster bombs.

Speaking in Dublin at a conference on Human Rights imagery yesterday, Locke spoke about allowing injured individuals, through photography and film to ‘act as witness to their experience’, giving them ‘time and space’ to reflect on and communicate their suffering.

What results is a deeply moving portrayal of individuals, whose injuries have uprooted their lives.

Yesterday, also came the historic announcement from Dublin, that an international ban on cluster bombs has been agreed. The ban includes the use, production, stockpiling and transport of cluster munitions. However, some of the leading users of the munitions, US, Israel, Russia and China have not signed the deal. Campaigners say that the ban will however, send out a clear message the bombs are unacceptable.

‘What Remains’ will be on display in the Gallery of Photography in Dublin’s Temple Bar until May 31.

http://www.galleryofphotography.ie/exhibitions/what_remains.html

More on the campaign to ban cluster bombs can be found on:


http://www.stopclustermunitions.org/

AND

http://www.landmineaction.org/

Africa Day, Sunday 25th May.

Come join the celebrations of all things African in music, song, dance, sport and film.

Over the next few days all across the country parks and cinemas, theatre and football pitches will be with brought to life with the sights and sounds of Africa, as Ireland plays host to Africa Day celebrations.

Dublin Castle is centre stage on Sun 25th with music and guest appearances by leading Irish and African acts including: Mundy, Kila, Sinead O Connor, the Republic of Loose, The Discovery Gospel Choir, Stone & Jezreel.. and many more. If that gets too much you have a wander around the bazaar comprising of stands from Egypt to South Africa. And if that gets to much you can always head over to the IFI (Irish Film institute) for free screenings of African films. But before you go, be sure to pop over to the cultural corner in Dublin Castle’s coach house, where I will be taking portraits along with fellow photographer Al Higgins, for the 2008 1000 Family Album, hosted by Suas and Concern. The photos comprise part of a larger project initiated by photographer Uwe Ommer, who spent 4 years traveling the world to record images of 1000 families, celebrating the diversity of the faces and places he encountered along the way

And it is all free of charge.

For more information on Africa Day of see:
http://www.irishaid.gov.ie/africaday2008/default.htm

And for more information in the 1000 families exhibit see:
www.buildingunity.eu

(Africa Day is supported by Irish Aid)

Gatoto Community Primary School on RTE

Gatoto Primary School, one of Suas’ partner schools in Nairobi, Kenya, will be featured on Far Away Up Close this coming Thursday (9th May), 10.45pm, RTE1, as part of a television series highlighting the role of Irish Aid overseas.

Betty Nyagoha, Gatoto’s head teacher, features prominently in the show. This is a rare chance to see this inspirational woman and school in action. Be sure to tune in!