International Women's Media Foundation

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Please improve this article if you can. (October 2006)

The International Women’s Media Foundation is a network of thousands of women journalists working internationally to elevate the status of women in the media. The IWMF has created groundbreaking programs to help women in the media develop practical solutions to the obstacles they face in their careers and lives. The IWMF also supports an international free press.

Highlights of the IWMF’s work include 'the Courage in Journalism Awards and the Maisha Yetu project.

1 The Courage in Journalism Awards
2 The Maisha Yetu project
3 External links
4 See also

[edit] The Courage in Journalism Awards

The only international award that recognizes the bravery of women journalists, the Courage Awards shine a light on the lack of press freedom around the world. Courage Award winners have suffered harassment, physical attacks, rape and death threats because they report stories about government malfeasance, genocide, war, human rights violations and crimes against humanity.

examples of recipients : Anna Politkovskaya, Gwen Lister

Innovative programs to help women become leaders in the newsrooms. In 2004, the IWMF launched the Leadership Institute for Women Journalists, a week-long program for U.S. journalists designed to help women become visionaries and acquire the skills they need to set the pace in their industry. In Africa, the IWMF sponsors the Carole Simpson Leadership Institute, where African women journalists can acquire the skills they need to succeed in their media careers.

[edit] The Maisha Yetu project

In 2002, working with a $1.5 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the International Women’s Media Foundation created the Maisha Yetu project to enhance the quality and consistency of reporting on HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria in Africa. The first phase of the project was qualitative and quantitative research on how the media cover HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria, which was published as Deadline for Health: The Media’s Response to Covering HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria in Africa.

The second phase of Maisha Yetu was the creation of “Centers of Excellence” in three African countries with the goal of creating practical, sustainable measures to help African media improve their health coverage. A report on the project, Writing for Our Lives: How the Maisha Yetu Project Changed Health Coverage in Africa, was published in July 2006. A conference was also held in Johannesburg, South Africa in July 2006, where representatives form the Centers of Excellence shared their experiences with representatives from key African media, and nongovernmental and women’s organizations.