For Immediate Release: Aug. 30, 2009
Contact: Dawn Arteaga, Communications Director
Telephone: 202.349.7624, E-mail darteaga@icfj.org
2009 World Affairs Fellows to Report on
Latin American Gangs, Sudanese Refugees Returning Home
Stories to focus on events overseas that resonate in local communities
Washington, D.C.–The International Center for Journalists will send eight American journalists abroad in 2009 to cover stories of particular importance to their local communities.
This year’s World Affairs Journalism Fellowship Program will send its first pair of reporters from different media organizations to investigate the same story: a Latin American street gang operating in El Salvador and Washington, DC. Patrick Madden of National Public Radio’s Washington, D.C. station, WAMU, will team up with Elahe Izadi of The Gazette, a weekly newspaper in Prince George’s County, Md. to explore youth gang issues. While the reporters will share information, each will produce his or her own distinct reports.
The World Affairs Journalism Fellowships provide training in multimedia reporting and advice on reporting abroad. The journalists spend up to two weeks of research overseas working on their projects.
Six other journalists have been selected for World Affairs Journalism Fellowships to pursue projects in Africa, Asia and Latin America:
- Pulitzer Center WAJF Fellow Philip Brasher of the daily Des Moines (Ia.) Register plans to investigate the success of biotechnology in boosting food production in Kenya and South Africa.
- Timothy Elfrink of Miami’s (Fla.) weekly New Times aims to report on connections between Asian manufacturers and Florida businesses, particularly in the construction and yachting industries.
- Krista Kapralos of the daily Everett (Wa.) Herald proposes to report on the work done by U.S.-based faith-based groups in Mali.
- Whit Richardson of MaineBiz, a bi-weekly newspaper covering business in Maine, expects to chronicle a Maine company’s development of deep-water cages to commercially produce fish in Mexico and Panama.
- Maureen Sieh of the Syracuse daily (NY) Post-Standard covered one young refugee from Sudan as he competed in the Beijing Olympic Games for the U.S. in 2008. She now plans to follow several Sudanese refugees who are returning to their native land to reconstruct that war-torn land.
- Sunita Sohrabji of India-West, a weekly newspaper serving Indian-American readers, wants to probe the export of discarded electronic equipment from the U.S. to India to be salvaged for precious metals by poor people who are exposed to toxic hazards as they extract metal.
The World Affairs Fellowship program is funded by the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation. The Pulitzer Center WAJF fellowship is sponsored by the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting, which provides multimedia-reporting training to the WAJF Fellows and videography services to the Pulitzer WAJF Fellow.
The International Center for Journalists, a non-profit, professional organization, promotes quality journalism worldwide in the belief that independent, vigorous media are crucial in improving the human condition. Now celebrating its 25th anniversary, ICFJ has worked directly with more than 55,000 journalists from 176 countries. Aiming to raise the standards of journalism, ICFJ offers hands-on training, workshops, online training, seminars, fellowships and international exchanges to reporters and media managers around the globe. For more, visit www.icfj.org.