GEC photography competition winner announced
06/10/2010 10:00:00
The winner was former VSO volunteer, Hezbourne Ouma Ong’elleh. His photo, entitled The Precious Gold Called Water shows Turkana women climbing deep into a sand dam to collect water. Hezbourne's photo received the most number of votes in this Facebook competion.
Kenya suffered severe droughts in 2005 and 2006, and again in 2009, with the greatest effects being felt in the northern part of the country, where the Turkana.
The Turkana people have adapted to living in a harsh climate by working together as a communal unit. But with increasingly erratic rainfall, caused by global warming from the emission of greenhouse gases, the adaptive strategies of the Turkana may not be enough to enable them to survive in such a parched landscape.
Hezbourne won signed copies of two Wangari Maathai books. Maathai is Africa’s first female Nobel laureate. She became a champion for protecting the environment more than four decades ago, after witnessing the effects of aggressive and unregulated logging in her homeland in Nyeri, Mt Kenya region.
A big thank you and well done to all who participated by entering the competition. In the eyes of GEC, you are all winners!
The competition was designed to raise awareness of how climate change is affecting people living in East Africa. The entries had to show and the effect of climate change or how people are adapting to it in Kenya, Uganda or Tanzania. Climate change is the GEC’s national theme for the next two years.
See the winning photo and runner-up gallery.
Editor's notes
The competition was designed to raise awareness of how climate change is affecting people living in East Africa. The entries had to show and the effect of climate change or how people are adapting to it in Kenya, Uganda or Tanzania. Climate change is the GEC’s national theme for the next two years.
