The IWMF’s Maisha Yetu project revolutionized newsroom training. Launched in 2002 with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Maisha Yetu (“Our Lives” in Swahili) worked with six news organizations in Botswana, Kenya and Senegal to raise the standards of reporting on HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.The project trained more than 1,000 journalists—half of them women—in investigative reporting techniques, and nearly doubled the volume of stories on these critical health topics. Maisha Yetu also spawned an online network of 450 journalists who continue to collaborate on health reporting.The IWMF documented best practices from the Maisha Yetu project in its publication Writing for Our Lives, which is available for download. With Maisha Yetu as the model, and with support from the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, the IWMF has recently launched a new initiative that will enhance coverage of agriculture, rural development and the role of women in African media.
Get copies of the guides, reports and publications from Maisha Yetu and from the IWMF’s other groundbreaking Africa programs: