ICFJ Knight Fellowships

African Health Association Boosts Skills and Coverage Across the Continent

One year after its launch, a new association is providing an important platform for journalists across Africa to work together to meet the challenges of covering life- and-death issues.

On a continent where spreading the news of health threats and scientific advances is critical, the African Health Journalists Association (AHJA) gives reporters a chance to share resources and knowledge, tap health experts and identify common needs.

“Journalists are stronger when they are in a group,” said Declan Okpalaeke, an award-winning Nigerian journalist, who was elected chairman at the association’

Twenty Finalists Emerge in $1 Million Story Challenge

Nairobi, Kenya - Twenty journalists have been shortlisted as finalists in the $1 million African Story Challenge, a new programme of reporting grants to encourage innovative, multi-media storytelling that aims to improve the health and prosperity of Africans.

The two-year project encourages journalists to experiment with new content ideas and ways to engage audiences through mobile technology, social media and other innovative tools.

Reporting Contest Leads to Rise in Polio Vaccines in Ethiopia

At a health center in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, a mother carries her child while waiting in line for him to receive a meningitis vaccine. “I have heard from the media about meningitis that it can physically disable or kill a child,” says the mother, Seble Yihun. Previously, she might have waited for a health extension worker to come to her home with the vaccine. But, she said, “I also heard health care centers are getting short of vaccines.

Empowering Women in Journalism and Tech in Latin America

Working in newsrooms with a multidisciplinary team of developers, journalists and designers became my everyday life when I was part of the Guardian Interactive team over the last three years.

This began with my former boss, Alastair Dant, who had the vision not only to start the Guardian Interactive team, but who recognized the need to place a woman in a key position on his team. This changed my life.