Cindy Carcamo, a 2012 participant of Bringing Home the World, explored how the Pacific Ocean has become the latest route for human smuggling into the United States from Mexico.
The International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) has selected 14 participants from the United States to report on everything from immigration to women’s health in the 2013 Bringing Home the World: International Reporting Fellowship Program for Minority Journalists. ICFJ also selected six U.S. journalists as fellows for the inaugural Social Justice Reporting for a Global America Program.
The fellows were chosen from a record 200 applications based on the quality of their proposals. Participants will report from abroad on issues that resonate with their local audiences. Ford Foundation funds the fellowships, with additional support for the Minority Journalists program from the Scripps Howard, Samuel I. Newhouse and Brooks and Joan Fortune Family foundations.
The program is designed to level the playing field, sending well-briefed journalists overseas to report on important global issues. The fellowship builds the participants’ skills and confidence in traveling abroad, making them more competitive in the newsroom. And their reports also bring fresh perspectives of the world to U.S. audiences.
In a new agreement, United Airlines will serve as the sponsoring airline for many of the 2013 fellows. With United’s generous support, these journalists will travel to Washington, D.C., for the fellowship orientation and to their reporting destinations overseas.
The fellows will focus on important social issues. Isabel Morales of CNN en Español, for example, will report on how new technology helps experts to identify the bodies of immigrants who died crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. Tyrone Beason, writing for The Seattle Times, will explore whether South Africa’s reputation as a safe haven for gays and lesbians is deserved, given continued anti-gay persecution there.
Fellows come from a variety of news organizations, including Newsweek/The Daily Beast; the Boston Globe; the Orange County Register; and WRKF-FM, Baton Rouge, La. Previous fellows have produced stories for major news outlets such as the Chicago Tribune, PBS, NPR, the Christian Science Monitor and the Huffington Post, with a combined audience of 100 million readers, listeners and viewers.
Here is a list of the International Reporting Fellows and their topics, followed by their Twitter handles so that you can follow their work:
Erin Ailworth (The Boston Globe) will travel to Israel to cover environment and technology. You can follow her @ailworth.
Tyrone Beason (The Seattle Times) will travel to South Africa to report on gay and lesbian rights. @tyrone_beason.
Deepa Bharath (The Orange County Register) will travel to South Africa to report on philanthropic efforts. @reporterdeepa.
Shaminder Dulai (Newsweek/The Daily Beast) will go to Asia to cover immigration issues. @SDulai.
Ruxandra Guidi (Freelancer) will cover human trafficking in Thailand. @RuxandraGuidi.
Kyle Iboshi (KGW-TV; Portland, Ore.) will cover environmental threats in Japan. @kyleiboshi.
Shuka Kalantari, (Freelancer) will travel to Turkey and Canada to cover sexual minorities as refugees. @skalantari.
Lily Kuo (Quartz, Atlantic Media) will cover environment and technology in China. @lilkuo.
Philip Marcelo (The Providence (R.I.) Journal) will cover human rights and philanthropy in Liberia. @philmarcelo.
Wadzanai Mhute (Freelancer) will travel to Zimbabwe to report on technology and land distribution. @Wadza_M.
Isabel Morales (CNN en Español) will travel to Mexico and Central America to cover immigration issues. @Moralesisa.
Sonia Narang (PRI’s The World) will cover women’s health in Nepal. @sonianarang.
Franco Ordoñez (McClatchy Newspapers) will travel to Mexico to report on immigration. @FrancoOrdonez.
Ashley Westerman (WRKF-FM; Baton Rouge, La.) will cover labor and immigration issues in the Philippines. @as_westerman.
Social Justice Fellows:
Karen Coates (Freelancer) will report on human rights and the environment in Southeast Asia. @RamblingSpoon.
Mark Curnutte (The Cincinnati Enquirer) will travel to Haiti to report on exploitation of workers. @MarkCurnutte.
Whitney Eulich (The Christian Science Monitor) will report on legal and environmental issues in El Salvador. @weulich.
Daniel Gold (Freelancer) will travel to Myanmar to report on the transition to democracy. @dgisserious.
Dana Liebelson (Mother Jones) will travel to India to report on the cotton industry. @dliebelson.
Roque Planas (The Huffington Post) will report on slavery reparations in Brazil. @RoqPlanas.