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Much of my career has grown around communication and youth initiatives. After university I worked for a non-governmental organisation called the Democracy Development Programme where, among other things, I was tasked with managing youth empowerment programs. Two years later, I joined the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and as a regional public information officer, travelled to Angola and Zambia working on communications initiatives. Meeting with journalists, and bringing them to refugee camps –such as the Nangweshi refugee camp in Zambia, near the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo– showed me a uniquely powerful way of mobilising interest in the refugee population of southern Africa. We ensured that journalists had access to refugees for interviews, which enhanced the media’s awareness and achieved our objective of informing people about UNHCR’s efforts to protect refugees. It was a very rewarding experience, and in 2001 I decided to continue my career in communications by joining the United Nations Information Center in Pretoria.
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