AKFC and the CAJ announce two inaugural International Development Reporting Fellows

The developing world’s stories are waiting – and two journalists will soon be bringing them home to Canadians.

Aga Khan Foundation Canada (AKFC) and the Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) are pleased to announce that Marc Ellison and Mellissa Fung are the inaugural recipients of the Fellowship for International Development Reporting. They will each receive $25,000 to cover stories in the developing world.

Ellison will report on the complex topic of child marriage in Tanzania, in print and online for the Toronto Star. His project will push the digital boundaries of international reporting, bringing together traditional print articles with an online, interactive graphic novel. Ellison is an award-winning journalist who has reported previously from Uganda, South Sudan, Mali, and Central African Republic.

Fung’s project focuses on the post-NATO opportunities and challenges in Afghanistan, digging deeper than headlines of conflict and crisis to uncover the everyday realities of rebuilding an underdeveloped country. She will report for The Walrus’s print, tablet, and mobile editions. Fung has produced award-winning reportage from Afghanistan since 2008.

The fellows were chosen by an independent selection committee, chaired by CAJ national director Ellin Bessner. Sitting on the jury were: Peter Klein, UBC Graduate School of Journalism; Sophie Langlois, Radio-Canada; Rosemary McCarney, Plan Canada; Juliet O’Neill, freelance journalist; and Stephen Puddicombe, CBC.

The fellows have one year to complete their projects. A second cycle of the fellowship will launch later in 2015.

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