FEAST OR FAMINE

Outside the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, known as “the capital of Europe” is a photographic exhibition on the  1000 Dreams  of refugees living across Europe.   The  1000 Dreams  project was created and managed by an organisation called Witness Change.    The project enables the stories of people on the move to be told in a way for visitors to learn about their strengths, challenges, and dreams. Fifty refugees from around the world produced the photographs and interviews that make up  1000 Dreams.  Every refugee storyteller attended a workshop and mentorship program to learn photography and intervew skills. It’s a project about refugees by refugees.    The exhibition was organised and funded with the support of the Heinrich Boll Foundation Thessaloniki and the Greens/EFA (European Free Alliance) in the European Parliament.     MARTINA NICOLLS MartinaNicollsWebsite    I     Rainy Day Healing...

  We Are All Birds of Uganda  (2021) is set in England and Uganda.    Sameer Saeed is a young hard-working lawyer in London who has just been promoted to the Singapore office to begin in five months time. His colleague Rahool has been attacked and is in intensive care.   Readers learn from letters dating from August 1945 to 1981 that Sameer’s grandfather Hasan from Uganda greq up amid the rise of anti-colonialism, Idi Amin’s regime, and the expulsion of Asian Ugandans from the country. Hasan fled Uganda and decided to stay in England to raise his family.   Hasan’s best friend from Uganda – Mr Shah – fled his country at the same time. Instead of staying in England with Hasan, he chose to returned to Uganda. Mr Shah now has sugar factories in Uganda.   Mr Shah is visiting England. Sameer has six weeks before he starts his new job in Singapore, so he travels to Kampala, Uganda, with Mr Shah in Kampala, for a two-week holiday. In Uganda, Sameer goes to his...

World Migratory Bird Day is held annually on the second Saturday in May and the second Saturday in October. In 2020, it will be held on 9-10 May. The theme for World Migratory Bird Day this year is ‘Birds Connect Our World.’ World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD) aims to raise awareness of the need to conserve migratory birds and their habitats.  Every year, around the world, education programs and bird-watching takes place. Over 120 events have been registered in 32 countries to celebrate the global event this year.  These activities can occur throughout the year, but the main days for the international celebrations always occur on the second Saturday in May and the second Saturday in October. The 2020 theme of ‘Birds Connect Our World’ focuses on the three flyways. WMBD aims to increase awareness about general and specific threats that birds are facing when they migrate—some for short distances and some for longer distances. If you wish to register an...

The Way to Paradise (2012) is set in France in the 1840s and Tahiti in the 1890s.  The novel begins in 1844 with Florita Tristan, aged 41, in France, with a vision of changing the world. She had travelled from France to Peru to collect her inheritance after her wealthy Peruvian father died. Now she was back in France, about to take a year-long journey throughout the countryside to campaign for better conditions for the poor. She has copies of the book ‘The Workers’ Union’ with her.  Was she crazy, a subversive, an anarchist, a revolutionary? Why would anyone give a part of their salary to be a member of a union? Was she after fame of some sort? No, she wasn’t seeking fame; she was after effectiveness. What she did, she did for others. She dies young, aged 41. Almost fifty years later, in 1891, Florita’s grandson Paul Tristan, aged 43, is in the French colonial island of Tahiti to imitate the life of Paul Gauguin – he wants to be an artist and to paint his ma...

The Financial reported the 2017 figures on migrant education participation rates in the European Union (EU) for adult migrants aged 25-54 years of age. Migrants born outside of EU member states had the highest education and training participation rate at 13.0%. Non-migrants across the EU had the second highest education and training participation rate at 12.4%. Migrants born within the EU living in another EU country had an education and training participation rate of 11.1%. Sweden, Finland and Denmark reported the highest participation rates for adult migrants for adult learning, regardless of country of birth at almost 33%.  The countries that had the highest rate of migrant participants born in another EU member state were Estonia (24%), the Czech Republic (13.0%), and Belgium (11.1%).  Five countries had the highest rate of migrant participants born outside EU member states: Finand (32.2%), United Kingdom (18.2%), Ireland (17.1%), Portugal (13.4%)...

Leaders from 9 European Union countries are meeting on 24 June 2018 in a mini-summit in Brussels, ahead of the EU summit on 28-29 June, to discuss possible solutions on migrants across Europe. Leaders of Germany, Austria, Belgium, France, Greece, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands and Spain are meeting for informal talks at the European Commission headquarters in Brussels, Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said. Efforts to reform the EU's asylum laws over the past two years have been unsuccessful, mainly due to the issue of which country should take responsibility for migrants and refugees and for how long.  The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) – the UN Refugee Agency – estimates that around 40,000 people have arrived in Europe by sea so far in 2018, around half the number who had entered at this time in 2017.  Refugee arrivals in Europe are declining, but the unity of the 28-nation EU bloc has a migration crisis.  Turke...

Don’t Tell Me You’re Afraid (2014, English version 2016) is based on the true story of Samia Omar, a Somali athlete. The narrator is Samia, as she tells her story of her life and ambitions.  Samia Omar is 8 years old, growing up in war-time Mogadishu, Somalia, in 1999, when she won her first race. She can run like the wind, beating children older than her.  Her inspiration was fellow Somalian Mo Farah. Mo Farah was living in England, and that’s where Ali, her coach, wanted to be. It was all he could think about, as well as coaching Samia. But the journey to Europe, from Somalia to the Mediterranean, and across the sea to Italy or Greece, was dangerous – as a refugee. But Ali’s journey is unknown – Samia hopes he made it.  For Samia, at 14 years of age, she has to decide – to stay and train alone without Ali or to leave with thousands of other Somalis and risk the danger. The words of her father ring in her ear: ‘You’re a little warrior running for freed...

Seventy-six percent (76%) of Africa’s elephants are in transboundary populations, which means that they are able to move freely across countries to gain access to water and food. This is also known as ‘free to roam.’ MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).