UNICEF, A Photo Pledge for Children’s Rights: Youth Award winners & Mentorship day

As part of this important awareness campaign we organised a special Youth Award to ensure that young people from across the globe got involved.   6 lucky and talented young photographers where chosen by our Academy patrons of this project to win this Youth Award.  Photographers and Academy patrons, Mary Ellen Mark, Bruce Davidson, Carol Allen Story, Jonathan Torgovnik and Reza judged the thousands of pledges made by young people from all parts of the world earlier this year and chose the 6 winners.

Congratulations to  Rachita Castelino from New Zeland, Ioana Velescu from Romania, Chyi-Dean Shu from the United States, Imane Tirich from Morocco, Mariya Maximenko from Israel and Giuliane Bertaglia Correia from Brazil were chosen by our patron jury for this very special award – a once in a lifetime opportunity to join UNICEF on a filed trip to Ethiopia, run in conjunction with EYE SEE and led by REZA.

Prior to this trip to Ethiopia, which will happen later this autumn, Imane and Giuliane joined us in Cannes this past April, during the Sony World Photography Awards event, to collect the award on behalf of all six youths and also to participate in a day-long mentorship with Reza and Carol Allen Storey.

This gallery shows you the 6 photographs taken by these youths to win the award and also a selection of images taken in Cannes during their mentorship and awards ceremony.

The very anticipated UNICEF field trip will take place late October 2010, when all 6 winning youths will travel to Ethiopia… stay tuned for updates on this amazing journey and once in a lifetime experience ahead!