CAIRO: The United Nations, and its various agencies, is known to routinely raise issues of social, economic and political importance and bring to the fore the plight of global impoverishment, displacement and disease.
A photo exhibit – a joint project between the World Food Program, Unicef, and the UN Information Center in Cairo to highlight the international body’s humanitarian projects in the region - was recently held at the El-Sawy CultureWheel.
Through the use of still photography, the UN agencies were able to shed light on humanitarian relief and development programs such as school projects in Upper Egypt and Iraq, medical clinics in Sudan, and emergency projects in Lebanon.
"This is some good work. The photographers have really been able to catch the essence of the events from a humanitarian perspective," a visitor said while examining a close-up portrait of a Bedouin woman holding her son at the exhibition.
The world's largest humanitarian agency, the World Food Program, provides food to more than 90 million worldwide in 80 of the world's poorest countries while Unicef is considered the global leader for children, working in more than 150 countries worldwide.
The UN Information Center in Cairo provides up-to-date information on the social and humanitarian activities of the UN in the region.
Representatives from the agencies kicked off the 10-day long exhibit with a presentation and discussion forum on the UN in the Middle East recently before a large audience comprised of journalists and human rights advocates as well as students and curious visitors.
"This project is intended to provide the general public with a better understanding of the work of the UN agencies. By demonstrating our humanitarian work in pictures, we hope to raise awareness of human rights issues among the public and show people our regional work here in the Middle East," Mohamed Amasha, Communications representative at the World Food Program, said in an interview with The Daily Star Egypt.
One of the photographers featured in the exhibition is Kotaiba Fayyad for the World Food Program.
Looking at his picture of a young brown-eyed boy at a WFP-sponsored school in Upper Egypt, Fayyad says with a big smile "You've got to have a lot of patience when photographing children, but their pictures usually come out very powerful."
Unlike other exhibitions, the featured photography was only for display and not for sale.
"We [targeted] the public and not mass media in this event. Far too many people associate the UN with New York-style skyscrapers and the Security Council instead of the important humanitarian field work we do. We want to change that general perception through this exhibit," Amasha emphasized.
