No amount of training can prepare you for sitting in a room with two little orphans and being told how their mother abandoned them. She was raped by her Uncle, her family threatened to kill her for engaging in incest and so she fled at the first chance she got. Training cannot prepare you for interviewing a HIV victim whose husband died from AIDs and whose daughter now suffers from HIV. She told me of how her daughter, Lucy, had a “mental retardation” and now had two children as a result of being raped...
Reporting from Kenya taught me why I wanted to be a journalist
Two boys, Kibera Slum, Nairobi, Kenya. Photograph: Larisa Brown.
I found out all of this in the space of a couple of hours spent researching one story for a news agency called African Laughter, where I’m currently on an internship. The aim of the company is to change the focus of Kenyan media from politics to one that informs, educates, inspires change and generally helps to improve lives.
And it is working. Nearly every day we get feedback off people who have been touched by stories and want to help in any way they can. Just last week we published a story about an educated man who has become a drug addict due to unemployment and depression. After its publication we were contacted by a teacher who was so upset about the story she is putting him on a rehabilitation scheme and giving him a job...
In every interview you go to you will always be asked why you want to be a journalist. I spent hours trying to figure out the best answer to that question and working in Africa has finally answered the question for me.
There are so many stories around the world to tell, and we need to tell them. And by telling those stories we can inspire change and, in turn, make the world a better place... Full article.
(This blog was first published on the Wannabe Hacks website on 13 May 2011.)