Twenty-six journalists took part in ICFJ’s New Media, New Challenges: Best Practices workshop over a five day period in April 2012, and learned about multimedia news reporting and new technologies to advance journalism in their countries. Three participants were awarded prizes for the remarkable stories they produced with the skills and tools they learned from the workshop.

The grand prize winner was Azam Shakeel of Pakistan’s TV Daes. He produced a short documentary on child labor in Karachi, “Child Labor in Pakistan,” where he estimates that there are two to three million street children. Ninety percent of his documentary was shot and edited with his new iPod Touch using the skills he learned during the ICFJ workshop.

• Azam Shakeel, Child Labor in Pakistan

One of two second prize winners, participant Awesh Tiwari produced an award-winning story about how residents of the rural village of Sonabhadra are crippled with skeletal fluorosis due to water contamination. Tiwari’s use of photos brought to the light the harsh realities being faced by children in Sonabhadra. His article was widely read and published in Indian news media outlets including the Kavinz Times and his popular news story prompted the government to pledge to install new pipelines to this and other rural villages.

• Awesh Tiwari, Skeletal Flourosis,Skeletal Flourosis- English Translation

The other second prize winner, Zamiza Azmat, wrote a comprehensive and illustrative story about incarcerated children which was published in the April issue of a monthly magazine, “Dastak in Karachi.” The article contained extremely powerful photos taken by a source in the prisons.

• Zamiza Asmat, Children in Prison