Ten New Media Journalists Selected to Report on Global Health in Zambia

The International Reporting Project (IRP) has selected ten innovative journalists and new media experts to participate in a ten-day trip to Zambia on July 14-24, 2013.

This trip will focus on the issues of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria in Zambia. Like other sub-Saharan countries, Zambia has made significant progress in addressing these diseases. At a time when global experts are examining the replenishment of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to combat these diseases, what happens on the ground in this southern African country is vital to decisions that may influence policymakers and affect future funding for treatment.

The Zambia Fellows will visit urban and rural sites to examine mother-to-child transmission of HIV, the high rates of HIV/TB co-infection, the challenges of drug delivery in rural areas, drug resistance issues, use of bed nets and other low-cost solutions to malaria, malaria during pregnancy. We will also investigate the use of technology in healthcare, and social and environmental factors – for example, gender-based violence and concurrent sexual partnerships – that exacerbate the spread of these diseases.

The new media journalists are:

• Sarah Pulliam Bailey, national correspondent for Religion News Service
• Lauren E. Bohn, freelance journalist
• Catherine de Lange, freelance journalist and editor at Nature Publishing Group
• Emily-Ann Elliott, freelance journalist
• Azad Essa, journalist at the Al Jazeera Network
• Zoe Fox, journalist at Mashable
• Jennifer James, founder of Mom Bloggers for Social Good and freelance journalist
• Roderick McCullom, freelance journalist and producer
• Corine Milano, managing editor of World Pulse
• Jaclyn Schiff, freelance journalist and communications director for the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene

The Zambia trip is IRP’s twentieth reporting trip since 2000. Previous IRP trip participants have traveled to Saudi Arabia, Kenya (in 2009 and 2012), Rwanda, Indonesia (in 2000 and 2011), Liberia, China,Peru, Turkey, Uganda, Korea, Nigeria, Egypt, India (in 2005 and 2013), Lebanon/Syria,South Africa, and Brazil. In addition to the trips, the IRP continues to offer individual fellowships to U.S. and international reporters.

Support for IRP is provided by foundations, individuals and nongovernmental donors. The program is based in Washington at the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).