For 10 years the government promised the remote Indian village of Sajan Khar its own well, and for 10 years the villagers struggled with the same four-mile trek to fetch drinking water for themselves and their animals.
Then early this year, Hem Singh Markam used a cell phone to call for help. And 15 days later, two hand-pump wells were delivered.
It is the latest example of what happens when indigenous, tribal communities are able to make their voices heard.
The World Media Academy Delhi graduated its first class of students on Saturday, May 26, all of them armed with the skills to become professional multimedia journalists in today’s high-tech, competitive news environment.
"This is your chance to make a difference in your profession," Knight International Journalism Fellow Siddhartha Dubey told students during his commencement speech. "It really is all about the love for journalism and reporting.
This weekend, as many nations prepare to celebrate Mother's Day, Mozambique released the figures from its latest demographic health survey. The figures show a climbing birth rate and -- particularly for women in rural areas -- limited access to maternity care or clean, well-equipped health clinics.
Reporting on tuberculosis (TB) has always been of particular interest to Tesfamichael Afework, one of the press officers at the Federal Ministry of Health in Ethiopia. He has done several stories about TB in the past, but not like this one. He is now compiling a story on the results of a nationwide population-based “TB Prevalence Survey” that aims to determine just how widespread the disease has been here in Ethiopia.
When Knight International Journalism Fellow Mercedes Sayagues arrived at the Savana newsroom in Maputo, Mozambique, in 2010, she found a lone woman reporter covering health and education news, stories that were largely ignored by editors more focused on politics, sports and corruption. “Salane Muchanga was the token woman, and not taken seriously,” recalls Sayagues.
Sayagues went to work, guiding the young reporter in the basics of health journalism.
