Call for Entries: Without Borders Media Fellowship

Journalists awarded with this fellowship are expected to produce at least one in-depth report by engaging with affected populations and stakeholders. The fellows will have an opportunity to work closely with mentors, who are experts and thought leaders in journalism and public health, as well as medical and operations specialists from the MSF movement.

Aims

• The Without Borders Media Fellowship aims to promote continuous reporting and outreach on the intersection of factors affecting public health and humanitarian conditions, including planetary health, social class, access to health resources, diagnosis, and treatment, conflict and violence, urban development, and disparities in healthcare access.
• 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 mobilization
  • Engage a community of actors interested in humanitarian 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

• Tuberculosis
• HIV
• Women’s Health
• Health Impact of Climate Change
• Impact of Caste on Health
• Neglected Tropical Diseases
• Gender Responsive R&D
• Antimicrobial Resistance

Categories

• General Grant (applicants can choose from a range of themes)
  • The General Grant supports in-depth reporting across five themes:
    • Tuberculosis
    • HIV
    • Health Impact of Climate Change
    • Women’s Health
    • Impact of Caste on Health
• MSF-DNDi (Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative) Grant on Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) and Gender Responsive R&D (Only Open to Applicants from India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka)
  • The MSF-DNDi Grant focuses on raising awareness and fostering a better understanding of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs). NTDs such as dengue, lymphatic filariasis, leishmaniasis and mycetoma affect millions of people in South Asia. These diseases are driven by factors like poverty, poor sanitation, lack of adequate treatment and limited healthcare access. This grant is aimed at exploring the complexities of NTDs from the lens of gender, pediatrics and climate change.
• MSF-GARDP (The Global Antibiotic Research & Development Partnership) Grant on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) (Only Open to Applicants from India)
  • AMR occurs when bacteria naturally develop resistance to antibiotics, rendering them increasingly ineffective. As a result, infections become difficult or impossible to treat, increasing the risk of disease spread, severe illness and death.

Funding Information

• 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 (or the local currency equivalent).
• The Fellowship award covers a duration of three to five months for the project, with some projects requiring further consideration depending on the application and reporting proposal.

Eligibility Criteria

• MSF welcomes applications from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, and Nepal:
  • Journalists of all nationalities and from diverse backgrounds, including staff 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 above.
  • Applications must be submitted in English. However, applicants are encouraged to additionally publish their stories in local languages of their region.
  • Former fellows are eligible to apply.

Selection Criteria

• Reporting proposals must be grounded in significant public health or humanitarian crises, in the countries mentioned above.
• Proposals must align with MSF’s work, social mission, and values.
• Current relevance of the story pitch.
• Innovative storytelling idea that has the potential to bring new insights to an issue.
• A minimum of 3 years of professional experience is required for applicants.

For more information, visit MSF.