The first report

Each month I am required to submit a monthly report to jhr so I figured I would do the same for you, my readers. For those of you who know exactly what I am doing here, you are exempt from reading this entry.

Blog postings
Every Friday afternoon, I submit blog postings to www.jhr.ca/blog. Although I have been lazy with my postikadi blog (in that I typically repost these weekly entries), I am satisfied with the amount of blogging I have done. Compared to my trip to Uganda last summer, I have a lot more work to accomplish (as per CIDA and jhr requirements) and so, I do not have nearly as much downtime as I did then. And I can honestly say this in the best possible way.

But, the time is passing quickly and there is so much left to do.

Portfolio development classes
We have split up two classes into eight study groups. From Tuesday to Friday, Amy and I each work with a group of five to eight students (if all are in attendance). Each week has a theme. Because none of the students have practical journalism experience, we have started with the basics: story pitches, components of a story, research, interview tactics, fact-checking, etc.

We have asked each of the students to come up with a story idea and use the study groups as a basis to form an in-depth human rights story. The hope is (for those who are ambitious) to pitch their stories to media houses in town and possibly internationally.

Some students have decided not to show up to these classes, but we are doing our best with the ones who are keen to learn. A few of the students have said that they are very grateful to be given the opportunity to learn outside the classroom. It is these student journalists that are going to achieve the greatest work.

Human rights debates
Every Monday morning, the certificate students have a human rights class. Amy and I take over the last half hour and their subsequent break to monitor human rights debates.

Some of the topics we have covered so far are: prisoner’s rights, children’s right to primary education, the right to economic gain vs. land ownership, and issues of a liberal dress code in relation to the rise in rape cases.

Yeah, heavy stuff.

The students get really fired up about the debates and usually when they approach the point of no return, we take it down a notch and relate the debate to journalism. Our intention with the debates is to get the students to see both sides to contentious issues.

Stay tuned for a full posting about the future debate on homosexuality.

MIJ FM
The Malawian Institute of Journalism is also home to a radio station. Although I don’t have radio experience, I sometimes sit in on their editorial meetings to give my input on their stories. I regularly find myself encouraging the reporters to speak with people who are directly affected by the issue they are researching, as most journalists in Malawi restrict themselves to speaking with only one source (another topic altogether).

Student chapter
After re-building a jhr presence at MIJ (as it has been two years since the last jhr intern has been here), we are in the early stages of establishing a jhr student chapter.

For those of you who don’t know, it is a campus club that raises awareness of human rights through events, fundraisers and by reporting on human rights issues through various mediums.

We have interest from the university across the street and they will be holding elections for the executive positions sometime this week. Because the students at MIJ have been off for two weeks, we are only just holding an information session this week. So far, they seem interested.

I’ll keep you updated on the progress of the chapter.

Other
We are supposed to be re-building the online newspaper at MIJ but this will likely coincide with the student chapter. We are working on recruiting a team of volunteers to run the publication so that we don’t get stuck doing all the work and then have it come crashing down after we leave.

I have a couple of potential freelancing opportunities lined up. If these are successful, I will post the links for you to read.

That seems to be all for now.
It’s nice that I’m busy this time around. Makes for less blog posts, I know, but it means I am holding onto my sanity.
Thanks for reading, as always.