Mike Wooldridge was a BBC journalist for 45 years. During this period he reported on many momentous events in Africa and Asia and also the Middle East including conflict in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Lebanon, Sudan, Angola and Mozambique and major humanitarian operations in Ethiopia, Somalia, Niger, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Haiti and elsewhere. He has reported widely on the challenges of tackling poverty from Central America to China. And he reported first-hand the release of Nelson Mandela. He was also BBC Religious Affairs Correspondent for six years. He is now a trustee of the BBC¹s international development charity, BBC Media Action, and continues to make long-form radio programmes.