Karen, who spent ten months in Nigeria during the summer work in a HIV clinic penned a series of articles for the Kilkenny People documenting her experiences of aid work in a Third World country.
The prestigious competition was open to over 135,000 third level students in Ireland and Karen, who is completing an MA in Development Studies at Dublin City University, has secured one of nine places in the shortlist.
Now Karen needs votes from members of the public to get through to the next stage of the competition and be in with a chance to win a trip to Uganda to get first-hand experience of the humanitarian aid that ECHO and the Irish NGOs provide there, and a professional video camera to record their experience.
Public voting commenced on the competition website www.crisiscorrespondent.ie on November 16 and will run until November 30. The four entries with the highest votes will go before an expert judging panel on December 7, including Richard Downes, presenter on RTE's Morning Ireland; Lelia Doolan, former Chair of the Irish Film Board and founder of Ireland's first media studies course and Emma Ledden, the first Irish person to be an MTV VJ and now a successful media and communications training professional.
Janice George of ECHO, said: "We are very impressed with the standard of entries received and now it is up to the public to cast their vote at www.crisicorrespondent.ie. This competition has been designed to raise awareness among third level students in Ireland of the "forgotten" crises in countries like Uganda. ECHO funds its partners to alleviate the suffering of people in countries which have been affected by natural disasters and conflict."
Every year, more than 200 million people are affected by natural disasters such as earthquakes, flooding, drought and hurricanes. A further 42 million are forced to flee their homes because of conflict, violence and persecution. The European Commission Humanitarian Aid department (ECHO) provides aid to countries beyond its borders which are struck by natural disaster or conflict.
Much of the funding, however, goes towards crises unreported by the media. ECHO is running the 'Crisis Correspondent – Reporting from Uganda' competition to raise awareness of these "forgotten" crises. Third level students were challenged to step into the shoes of a crisis correspondent and consider how they would report on the issue. The competition is supported by two of ECHO's partners, Irish NGOs Goal and Concern Worldwide. To vote for Karen go to www.crisiscorrespondent.ie