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Second Harambee 2002 International Award: Communicating Africa

January 19, 2006

Tags: Canonization, Citizenship, culture, Solidarity, Harambee
Harambee 2002 was founded on the occasion of Saint Josemaría Escrivá’s canonization. Its aim is to support educational and social projects in sub-Saharan Africa.

The Second Harambee 2002 International Prize for Audiovisual Communication “Communicating Africa” is dedicated to documentaries and television reports. The scope of the competition is to reward documentaries that try to show a positive vision of Africa, obviously without ignoring the difficulties of the real situation.
The Prize is intended to challenge public opinion by drawing attention and concern to Africa until a remedy has been found to:
· the silence: people’s unwillingness to respect Africa’s place in the international community;
· the stereotypes: limited views on Africa as a morass of war, social drama, health emergencies and poverty. A partial view that hides the real, everyday Africa.

The entries submitted should deal with ethnic, religious, social, economic, and cultural issues relevant to Sub-Saharan Africa. For more information on entries and rules, see www.harambee-africa.org.

The first edition of the Prize was organised in 2004 with 51 documentaries presented. The Award ceremony was held in Rome at the Campidoglio on November 15th, 2004.

Harambee 2002 was an initiative on the part of the organizing committee of the canonization of Josemaría Escrivá, the founder of Opus Dei. It aimed to offer those who came to the canonization ceremony the chance to show their gratitude to God in real terms, and in accordance with the sentiments often expressed by Saint Josemaría himself, by contributing towards educational programmes in Africa.

Africa is a continent with enormous resources and serious problems. Its situation is an urgent call to the consciences of Christians and of all men and women of good will, because, as Saint Josemaría said, “A man or a society that does not react to suffering and injustice and makes no effort to alleviate them is still distant from the love of Christ’s heart. While Christians enjoy the fullest freedom in finding and applying various solutions to these problems, they should be united in having one and the same desire to serve mankind. Otherwise their Christianity will not be the word and life of Jesus; it will be a fraud, a deception of God and man” (Christ is Passing By, 167).