Martha Rial (pronounced
"Rile"), 38, a staff photographer for the Post-Gazette since 1994, has won
numerous awards for her
work, including the
1998 Pulitzer Prize for
Spot News Photography for her African journal, "Trek of Tears." That
project documented the plight of refugees from Rwanda and Burundi.
Before joining the Post-Gazette, Rial was a staff
photographer at the Ft. Pierce Tribune in Ft. Pierce, Fla. and the Journal Newspapers in
Alexandria, Va.
A Murrysville native, Rial is a
graduate of the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and Ohio University’s School of Visual
Communication. Her work has also been recognized by the National Headliners and Scripps
Howard Foundation.
She lives in Squirrel Hill.
Anita Srikameswaran
(pronounced "sree-CAM-us-war-un"), 31, has been medical writer at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette since September
1997.
Srikameswaran, who grew up in Winnipeg,
Manitoba, has an M.D. from the University of Manitoba and a master’s in journalism
from Northwestern University. After practicing briefly as a family doctor in Canada, she
participated in a science writing fellowship at the Chicago Tribune before joining the
Post-Gazette.
She has done major projects on the
intensive care unit at Children’s
Hospital and the history of the Pitt Men’s Study, a landmark AIDS research effort.
Her most recent project was a major profile of transplant pioneer Dr. Thomas Starzl.
During their one-month
stay, Rial and Srikameswaran not only will gather information and photographs for stories
that will be published after they return, but will provide exclusive reports on their
experiences on post-gazette.com, the
Post-Gazette's Web site, under the title, "An African Journal."
The first of those reports can be seen
by clicking on the link below. It features Srikameswaran's initial
impressions of Rwanda and Rial's
first photos from the nation.
Rial and Srikameswaran will be working in
conjunction with the International Rescue Committee,a humanitarian refugee support group
that is trying to reunify families broken apart by the conflict and improve conditions for
those still threatened by wars and disease in the region.
While many in Rwanda have new hope and a
commitment to overcome ethnic rivalry and rebuild their nation, serious problems still
plague neighboring Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In Burundi, hundreds of
thousands of Hutu farmers have been jammed into detention camps by the Tutsi government to
prevent them from aiding rebels in the ongoing civil war there. And in the Democratic
Republic of Congo, ongoing warfare and accompanying disease have killed more than 1
million people in the past two years.
