ProjectTeam Index

Emma Gilliam, Project Director I've worked for the BBC for more years than I care to think!  It's a great place to work and I've had worked with many fantastic people. I'm the Project Director for the Somali Journalism Training Project until April 2006.  Then I will return home to the UK, where I work for BBC Local Radio in Sheffield as a News Editor.  When I first joined the BBC I was appointed as a reporter working on the east coast of the UK - I learned a lot about how the English fishing industry was in decline!  Then I returned to where I was born and worked for the BBC in Guernsey and Jersey.  In total I've worked in seven BBC radio stations, 1 television newsroom, as well as World Service Trust.  During my time with WST I've carried out projects in Russia, India and Ghana.  I've worked with journalists preparing for presidential elections, producers preparing programmes on HIV/AIDS, a project to set up radio stations in prisons and with community radio stations wanting to learn new techniques.  In the UK I've worked as a reporter, producer, presenter, News Editor, Programme  and managed the BBC Bus for South Yorkshire!  I've turned my hand many things including radio documentaries, learning to be a TV reporter and camera operator and broadcasting from a fishing boat in the English Channel in a force 7 gale.

Yonis Ali Nur, Senior Trainer, iLearn editor.   I'm a nomad. And I've always been on the move but within the profession. My career started out as a reporter at Radio Mogadishu in Somalia in 1973 where I also used to write commentaries and made features. I had also a great time with Radio Deutsche Welle in Germany where I stayed for one year to undertake a broadcast journalism training programme. Back in the Somali broadcasting service, I was appointed as the head of news and current affairs, then as managing editor of the Somali National News Agency (SONNA) up until the escalation of the civil war. I joined the BBC in 1983 as a presenter and then as senior producer in the Somali Service. During my time with the BBC, I also worked with Health Unlimited, a British Charity organization involved in educational media, and UNESCO PEER Group in Nairobi as a production consultant. For the last five years or so, I’ve been involved in the Somali Journalism Training Projects. During the first phase of the Project, with my colleague Maria Frauenrath, we have hardly ever come across any literature on journalism in Somalia. As a result of the civil war, most libraries and journalism books were destroyed. Then we felt there was a need to compile a handbook for the Somali journalists. The "In My View"  handbook, which has been drawn from the material we developed for our courses, is now in place in English and Somali. Also this current phase of the Somali journalism training project, which is a blended learning programme, comes up with one more literature on journalism -  the online learning courses for Somali journalists, which i'm involved. And here I'm again still on the move up the sky with the 'iLearn' cyberspace.

Yusuf Hassan, Project Coordinator Yusuf Hassan joined the BBC in 1996 as a freelance Reporter in Mugadishu on Arabic Service and Somalis. In 1997 Covered Somali Peace Talks in Cairo for Arabic and Somali Section. In 1999 Yussuf hassan covered the UN general assembly and many states in the United States where the Somali diaspora live. In 2000, Yusuf has covered the Israel-Palestine conflicts for both the Somali and Arabic sections of the BBC. In 1998-2000 Yusuf has the BBC correspondent for both the Somali and Arabic sections in Somalia while at the same time working for the Somali Journalists Training as a trainer and fixer. Yusuf has been based in Nairbi where he has been reporting for both the Somali and Arabic sections of the BBC.in 2001 worked in United Arab Emarite as a Corrospondent for BBC Somali Section. In 2002-2003 Yusuf Hassan Covered Kenya and Neigeria Ellections for BBC Arabic Servece and Somalis,also Yusuf covered Iraq war 2003 for BBC Somalis from Cairo. He is based in Nairobi.