Deadline: 5-Jun-23
The Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is looking for journalists, photographers, filmmakers, and newsrooms to work together, build communities of practice, and support humanitarian actors to better understand crises and contexts, while working with compassion.
The Without Borders Media Fellowship aims to promote continuous reporting and outreach on the intersection of factors affecting public health and humanitarian crises, including planetary health, social class, crime and violence, urban development, access to health resources, diagnosis, and treatment, transportation, city planning, and disparities in healthcare access.
Stories from the heart of crises give a voice to the vulnerable, support medical and humanitarian advocacy, and encourage dialogue on humanitarian values.
Aims
- The Without Borders Media Fellowship aims to:
- Encourage cross-border and hyper-local reporting on health and humanitarian crises.
- Leverage multimedia storytelling to build public awareness and sensitization.
- Engage a community of actors interested in emergency response and medical action.
- Document and highlight critical practice or policy issues in healthcare delivery.
- The Fellowship award aims to support media professionals by providing the following:
- Reporting costs
- Access to MSF projects
- Knowledge sharing on MSF’s model of care
- Mentorship
- Training/sensitization
- Resources to produce in-depth, insightful reporting.
Themes
- The Fellowship accepts applications and reporting proposals on various thematic areas, including but not limited to General Grant (applicants can choose from a range of themes) or the MSF-DNDi (Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative) Grant for Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs).
- Maternal and Child Health
- HIV / Advanced HIV
- Emergency Response
- Diabetes
- Refugee Health
- Climate Emergency
- Occupational Health
- Food Insecurity
- Access to drugs
- Mental Health
- Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis
- Neglected Tropical Diseases
- The Fellowship welcomes applications and reporting proposals that:
- Advance public understanding of health policy and human-interest stories focusing on health inequity and challenges to accessing healthcare.
- Explore health disparities, their causes, and local, indigenous, or novel solutions.
- Investigate socio-economic and cultural barriers that may restrict public health and well-being.
What to expect as fellow?
- Media Fellows who are selected in the MSF program are provided with comprehensive support throughout their journey. This includes mentorship, subject matter sensitization, and training, as well as access to MSF projects and experts. They also receive funding for reporting costs for field visits, based on reasonable and detailed budgets. Most awards range between INR 50,000 to INR 2,00,000, and amounts may vary depending on individual circumstances.
- The Fellowship award covers a duration of three months for the project, with some projects requiring further consideration depending on the application and reporting proposal. Fellows are expected to publish their work within three months of receiving the Award.
Fellowship Duration: 3 months (July – September 2023).
Deliverables
- Fellows will work closely with the MSF South Asia Communications Team and mentors to finalize their deliverables. They must ensure that the presentation or representation of any facts, anecdotes, and lived experiences, both medical and non-medical, that may affect patient privacy, rights, and access to healthcare, are closely reviewed.
- Print/Digital News: Fellows must publish a minimum of three article series (800 words, feature, or analysis) or one long-form story (2500-3000 words) on a notable news platform. If the journalist is already working in a news organization, the organization must be willing to publish the story.
- Multimedia: Fellows must publish one news feature (5-10mins) photo essay or illustrations supported with text (600 words).
- Fellows will be encouraged to participate in a webinar/Facebook Live session, ideally in association with another organization/MSF/media platform where the stories are published, where each fellow will speak about their work and highlight the cause.
Eligible Countries
- MSF welcomes applications from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, India, Maldives and Pakistan.
Eligibility Criteria
- They are committed to supporting journalists of all nationalities and from diverse backgrounds, including professional reporters, photographers, radio/audio journalists, and television/video journalists working in print, television, online media (including YouTube), as well as freelancers based in the countries mentioned.
- Professionals in media with proven expertise in writing about gender, public health, development, public policy, or related topics.
- Journalists who work for both English and regional language publications can apply for this fellowship.
Selection Criteria
- Reporting proposals must be grounded in a significant public health or humanitarian crises, in the countries mentioned.
- Proposals must align with MSF’s work, social mission, and values.
- Current relevance of the story pitch.
- Innovative storytelling that has the potential to bring new insights to an issue.
- A minimum of 3 years of professional experience is required for applicants.
- Former fellows are eligible to apply, priority will be given to first-time applicants.
For more information, visit Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).