AZaina Erhaim, a Syria-based journalist, who has trained hundreds of citizen reporters in the war-ravaged country has been named the recipient of the 2015 Peter Mackler Award for Courageous and Ethical Journalism. Over the last two years, Erhaim has trained about 100 citizen reporters from inside Syria, approximately a third of them women, in print and TV journalism, and helped establish new, independent newspapers and magazines in the country.

The 30-year-old Erhaim is also the Syria project coordinator for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR), an international organization that supports journalists in countries undergoing conflict, crisis or transition.

Points to Note

• The award, named for the late Agence France-Presse journalist Peter Mackler
• The Award will be presented at a ceremony at the National Press Club in Washington on 22 October.
• The prize was created in 2008 to honour the memory of Mackler, who died of a heart attack that year at the age of 58.

Facts About Syria

• Syria’s civil war is the worst humanitarian disaster of our time.
• More than four years after it began, the full-blown civil war has killed over 220,000 people, half of whom are believed to be civilians.
• The U.N. estimates that 7.6 million people are internally displaced.
• Four million Syrians have registered or are awaiting registration with the United Nations High Commission of Refugees.
• The majority of Syrian refugees are living in Jordan and Lebanon.

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