Neill McKee's Blog

Recent UNFPA contest winner

Darya (her artist name) is a young Afghan woman, mentioned in the final pages of my memoir, My University of the World: Adventures of an International Film and Media Maker. She contacted me in November 2021, after the Taliban had taken control again in her country. She’s an example of resilience in the face of difficult circumstances—something needed by all of us who cherish human rights and freedom today, given the recent political changes in the U.S. and trends in other countries.

As a child, Darya was influenced by the most successful and long-lasting media project I started, UNICEF’s Meena Communication Initiative. She was born and grew up as a refugee in Peshawar, Pakistan. (Her late father was from a minority community and the family had escaped the first Taliban rule.) Her mother, a teacher in her school, brought her Meena comic books to read and she saw Meena cartoons on television. The Meena stories challenge traditional South Asian gender norms, and from an early age she understood that girls in her family and society do not have the same rights as boys, and that this is not right.

  After the Taliban were overthrown, the family returned to Afghanistan, where she completed secondary school. But Darya is one of thousands of young Afghan women whose dreams of a university education were interrupted when the Taliban returned to power. (She wants to become a professional art therapist and return to Afghanistan to help when the time is right.) We communicated many times and I encouraged her not to give up. She tried as hard as possible to continue volunteer work with UNICEF Afghanistan’s Youth Network and to teach art for children at local NGOs. But she knew artwork of humans and other living things was forbidden by the new government and she would become a target. Also, there were bomb threats aimed at minorities and women appearing in public, so she managed to escape to Pakistan with her mother.

When she reached Islamabad, I contacted a former Unicef-New York colleague who came from Pakistan and we reached out to two more ex-Unicef friends in Pakistan. The four of us supplied Darya with a new laptop computer, an electronic pen, a new cellphone, a little cash, lots of encouragement, and she took off from there! The title painting at the beginning of this story has recently won a competition organized by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Pakistan.

Since then, UNFPA invited her with others to meet their Regional Director, and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) contracted her to complete six cartoon-style illustrations on gender violence, empowerment of girls and women, non-discrimination, protection and solidarity, support mechanisms, and transformative change for their “16 Days of Activism,” Nov. 25 - Dec. 10, 2024, where she participated in a panel on Dec. 1st.

Not only that, since arriving in Pakistan, Darya’s artwork has been displayed and sold by women’s groups in the U.S., U.K., and Italy, where one piece was published by Avvenire newspaper and presented to Pope Francis in May 2024, and another added to Monastery di Marango’s calendar for July 2025.

Also, one of her paintings was published in an article in Seattle Opera magazine in February 2023:

Darya used the sale of her artwork to run five distant art courses for disadvantaged children in Afghanistan, and applied for and received an Afghan Bridge Fellowship from the U.S. to fund an additional course. She was also contracted by the Idries Shah Foundation to narrate 30 children’s stories in Dari language.

In addition, in preparation for her future, Darya registered in the California-based online University of the People to study health sciences, and has completed many online certificate courses in diverse subjects: psychology, art therapy, online teaching, self-empowerment, international leadership and organizational behavior, social management, and managing project risks and changes. She translates testimonials of Afghan women refugees from Dari to English for the American NGO, Team Themis, and produces posters for them. In addition, she has signed up to do voluntary work for UNHCR, Pakistan.

  Darya is a refugee herself, but does not see herself as a victim. Somehow, by her personality and talents, she succeeds. She came from humble beginnings and doesn’t know what the future has in store for her or where she might end up. If you want to communicate on this you can contact me at: nmckee20@gmail.com.

Enjoy examples of her artwork below.

Above left, an Afghan version of a poster character created for Team Themis, Pakistan,  based on “Rosie the Riveter” an allegorical cultural icon in the U.S. who represented women who worked in factories and shipyards during World War II, plus earlier artwork on the more feminine side.

Is it as Gollum says in The Lord of the Rings , “My Precious” (metals) -- used in defense, green energy, high tech, and aerospace , etc.? Ukraine's soil contains trillions of dollars of rare metals, as Putin knows. Read the articles below and decide for yourself.

I spent three challenging years working in Moscow on a health communication project during the mid-2000s, when the Orange Revolution began, the start of the most recent conflict between Russian and Ukraine, as I tell in my latest award-winning memoir:

My University of the World: Adventures of an International Film and Media Maker

Read article by an international law firm, Dentons, here:

And another with more details here:

Also by the Green European Journal:

Neill McKee, M.S.

Creative Nonfiction Writer

Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

Author’s website:  www.neillmckeeauthor.com/

Possibly, it is as Gollum says in The Lord of the Rings , “My Precious” (metals used in electric vehicles, space craft, etc.)

Read the article here:

And another article one here:

I spent three challenging years in Moscow during the mid-2000s, when the most recent conflict between Russian and Ukraine, the Orange Revolution, began, as told in my latest memoir:

My University of the World: Adventures of an International Film and Media Maker

Neill McKee, M.S.

Creative Nonfiction Writer

Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

Author’s website:  www.neillmckeeauthor.com/

Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7fiVbOg0ls

( Note: There's a 15 second sound glitch at the beginning of slide 3, then the sound returns. )

My University of the World: Adventures of an International Film and Media Maker is the 2025 Winner of the New Mexico-Arizona Book Award Contest for Autobiography & Memoir. There is only one winner for each category in this contest and in autobiography & memoir there were 13 finalists and many more entries. See details here: https://nmbookcoop.com/BookAwards/BookAwards.html

My University of the World: Adventures of an International Film & Media Maker , is the 2024 winner of the National Indie Excellence Awards (NIEA) for autobiography, the 18th Annual contest. This is my third award for this book but first in 1st place. The NIEA is based in California, USA, but open to independent authors and publishers around the globe. I'm also open to presentations to and discussions with interest groups, writers' groups, book clubs, etc. Contact me at this email address: neillmckeeauthor@gmail.com .

In my latest memoir, My University of the World: Adventures of an International Film & Media Maker , I tell the story of the creation of Meena, a role model for girls' education, health, protection, and all child rights in South Asia. In 1990, after becoming the Chief of Communication for UNICEF in Bangladesh, I brought together a great team to create Meena—entertaining, well-researched, multimedia stories that engaged children, parents, and whole communities. Meena ran regionally for 20-25 years and continues today in Bangladesh, 32 years after launching—part of the culture now. Today, “Meena Day” is still celebrated annually in Bangladesh on September 24th, and I continue to get weekly messages from young adults, both women and men, throughout South Asia, thanking UNICEF and mentioning how these stories influenced them in their childhoods. Children and adults around the world can be entertained and educated. See more details, play the cartoons, and read the comic book episodes in English here: https://www.neillmckeevideos.com/meena . 

Also see reviews, blogs, interviews, awards, and learn more about my other films and media initiatives in My University of the World , available through many outlets: https://www.neillmckeeauthor.com/my-university-of-the-worl d

Listen here: