Photo Exhibition:

Pieces Of Africa

 

Smiling Boy - by Pádraig Grant.

ICELANDAIR and JPV publishers are to sponsor the launch of IceAid on September 1st 2007 with an exhibition at Art Iceland Reykjavik. Proceeds from the exhibition will be used by IceAid to fund the ongoing rehabilitation of orphanages in Liberia. The exhibition is a retrospective of black and white fine art photographs made over a twenty year period in Africa by IceAid co-founder Pádraig Grant.

Sudan Goodtime - by Pádraig Grant.

Pádraig explains, ?My photographs are thematically linked by my desire to address the near constant stream of misrepresentation of ?Africa? in the media; as if there is one Africa, a singular identity, an identity of corruption and endless hardship. In extreme circumstances people can be magnificent; it?s in the way that they care for each other and the things they do  to make life better.

He continues, ?Made between 1989 to the present the photographs depict people going about their daily lives against a background of political and environmental disaster. But the images are not bleak and they do not present a hopeless scenario. The exhibition takes the viewer on a journey through the parched landscapes of Sudan and Somalia, the volcanic topography of Ethiopia, the verdant borderlands of Congo and Rwanda and on through Kenya and Uganda.?

Ethiopia Earthmine - by Pádraig Grant.

IceAid is committed to working towards the United Nations Millennium Development Goals; eradicating poverty and extreme hunger, a reduction in child mortality, the achievement of universal primary education, the promotion of gender equality, combating disease, ensuring enviornmental sustainability and developing a global partnership for development. In designing its projects, special consideration is given to inolving community members in the planning process and using local resources to achieve the goals that the community has set forth. This model ensures the sustainability of projects by giving beneficiaries a hand in project design, by training them to monitor and evaluate the progress of their work, and by empowering them to discover their own leadership potential.

 

TANZANIA

HIGH QUALITY LOW COST ESSENTIAL DRUGS

In association with Actavis, Iceland?s largest pharmaceutical producer, and Atlansskip, an Icelandic shipping
company, IceAid arranged the donation of drugmaking equipment to expand the capacity of Tanzania Pharmaceuticals Initiative to produce affordable medicines for local communities. Along with providing economic opportunities for the local drug producer, the donation also involves training of the local staff
to improve the group?s community outreach activities.

Sudan Baby - byr Pádraig Grant.

Informational campaigns in the surrounding communities will contribute to better health practices and disease prevention in an area with a prevalence of malaria and HIV/AIDS.

100,000 Tanzanians die every year from malaria, most of them women and young children. HIV/AIDS has reduced the life expectancy to under 40 years and each year fifty to sixty thousand children are born HIV-positive, a preventable situation given adequate access to medication.

LIBERIA

ORPHANAGE REHABILITATION

For its first project, IceAid undertook to provide shelter and educational opportunities to children orphaned by the 14 year civil war in the Liberian capital city Monrovia.

To rehabilitate the orphanage, along with a computer center in the neighboring school, founders Glumur
Baldvinsson and Pádraig Grant used a private donation to employ 12 Liberians, and secured 12 more volunteers through a partnership with the Irish Defence Forces stationed in Liberia.

The Alfred and Agnes Memorial Orphanage is named after two young Liberian children. The completed building houses 70 orphans, with one building for girls and one for boys.

Birds in Ethiopia - by Pádraig Grant.

Next door, funds were used to build and equip a computer center in a primary school, providing new opportunities for all of the students in the area.

With thousands of orphans living in terrible and life threatening conditions all over Liberia, IceAid?s work is far from complete.

New donations are needed to ensure that Liberia?s children are not forgotten in the country?s efforts at reconstruction.

 

BOARD

Vigdís Finnbogadóttir (Former President of Iceland) - Dr. Jón Ormur Halldórsson (Docent in International Business, University of Reykjavík) Steinunn Thordardottir (CEO, Isbank London) - Dr. Gauti Eggertsson (Economist at the US Central Bank) - Jón Baldvin Hannibalson (Ex-Foreign Minister of Iceland) Dr. Svafa Grönfeldt (Rector, University of Reykjavík) - Dr Sigridur Thorgeirsdottir (Docent in Philosophy University of Iceland) - Egill Helgason (Television Host) Anna Papaconstantinou (Planning Specialist) - Eoin Colfer (Author) - Hallgrímur Helgason (Author)

IceAid is an independent Icelandic development and humanitarian agency