Syria, Photography and Charity

As the conflict in Syria continues I was reminded of this interview I produced and thought it was a good opportunity to post it. It is from the BBC World Service 'Weekend' programme in November. It is a unique insight on what goes on behind the scenes of war. Ibrahim Malla has been the Red Crescent's official photographer for the last fourteen years. He takes images for use by charitable agencies to shock or move people into donating money for humanitarian aid and to let people know what is happening. For most of his 14 years with the Red Crescent, he lived in his home town of Damascus, 3 of those years was with his Italian wife Sylvia. However they were forced to leave as the fighting intensified. He now lives between Italy and Lebanon, but he regularly goes back to Syria to take more photographs. Our presenter Paul Henley spoke with Ibrahim and Sylvia when they in London. This was followed by a discussion with our panellists, Mark Mackinnon - a Canadian journalist who is the Globe and Mail newspaper's international affairs correspondent who has been to one of the refuggee camps Ibrahim talks about and Kishwar Desai - an author, journalist and broadcaster from India. I also received word that after the interview was first broadcast Ibrahim & Sylvia were in Australia for a Red Cross event. A woman approached them to say she'd heard their interview and so had come to meet them. Good to know these pieces of audio really do reach people. First Broadcast 3rd November 2013 #syria #bbcweekend #redcross150 #redcrescent #bbcworldservice #bbcws #ibrahimmalla #photography