World Affairs Reporting Projects 2008 - 2009
India Loomed Large in the World Affairs Journalism Fellowships for 2008-2009
Few countries are more important for Americans to understand than India, the world's second most populous nation. For our 2008-2009 World Affairs Journalism Fellowships, ICFJ received a flood of proposals for in-depth reporting projects in India, and that country was featured in four of the eight projects we selected. The resulting reports linked U.S. communities with trends in business, medicine and immigration in the rapidly growing South Asian economy.
Kris Hundley (pictured at right) reported on how India's poor engage in test trials for new drugs destined for the U.S. market. Her series, published online and in the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times, won first place for a multimedia project from the National Press Photographers Association and the Society of American Business Editors and Writers.
Corrie MacLaggan followed a Texas trucker to Chennai, India, for relatively low-cost hip-replacement surgery. Her stories for the Austin (Texas) American-Statesman probed the growing interest in foreign surgery among uninsured Americans and even some medical insurers.
Steve Eder brought home to Jeep-manufacturing Toledo, Ohio, a series of stories about the rise of car makers in India. There, Detroit's Big Three auto companies are facing home-grown competitors vowing to become global players.
Sandip Roy, a resident of California's Silicon Valley, traveled to his native India to report on a swelling repatriation of Indians from the United States. They go back for new job opportunities, to be near family and to enjoy a rising Indian economy, Roy found. "The trickle (of returnees) is going to become a flood," predicted one observer.
Other 2008-2009 World Affairs Journalism Fellows made forays to Peru and Chile, Jamaica, and the Netherlands. Matthew Brown of The Baltimore Sun was the 2008 Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting Fellow, and he reported on the surge of Iraqi refugees in Syria and Jordan as well as the relatively few who have been allowed to emigrate to Maryland and elsewhere in the United States.
The International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) is proud of this class of World Affairs Journalism Fellows. With sponsorship from the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation and one fellowship funded by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, these eight U.S. journalists opened Americans' eyes to how events overseas impact their communities.
World Affairs fellows have won prestigious national and local awards for excellent journalism every year since the program was launched in 2002. The 2008-2009 group is carrying on that tradition. To see their stories, blogs, photos and video, please read our Online Annual Report. To apply for the 2009-2010 program, please click here.
To support this valuable program and ensure we can continue to bring essential coverage to communities worldwide, I hope you consider joining our Annual Campaign. Your new donation of any size will be partially matched until August 2009.
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Best regards,
Patrick Butler
Vice President-Programs