Without Borders Media Fellowship - Médecins Sans Frontières(MSF)/Doctors Without Borders

ABOUT THE FELLOWSHIP

The Without Borders Media Fellowship aims to encourage cross-border and hyper-local reporting. It leverages scientific storytelling to draw attention to emerging crises in public health and humanitarian aid. Fellows work on their field-intensive projects by engaging 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.

Stories from the heart of crises give a voice to the vulnerable, support medical and humanitarian advocacy, and encourage dialogue on humanitarian values. MSF is looking for journalists, photographers, filmmakers, and newsrooms to work together, build communities of practice, and support humanitarian actors to better understand crises and contexts, while working with compassion.

Call for applications for the Without Borders Fellowship 2023 is now open.

There are two grant categories available for applicants to choose from: the General Grant, which allows applicants to choose from a range of themes, or the MSF-DNDi Grant on Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs).

MSF welcomes applications from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, India, Maldives and Pakistan.

We are committed to supporting journalists of all nationalities and from diverse backgrounds, including professional 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.
Professionals in media with proven expertise in writing about gender, public health, development, public policy, or related topics.
Journalists who work for both English and regional language publications can apply for this fellowship.

Reporting proposals must be grounded in a 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 that has the potential to bring new insights to an issue.
A minimum of 3 years of professional experience is required for applicants.
Former fellows are eligible to apply, priority will be given to first-time applicants.

WHY BEAR WITNESS

The Without Borders Media Fellowship aims to promote continuous reporting and outreach on the intersection of factors affecting public health and humanitarian crises, including planetary health, social class, crime and violence, urban development, access to health resources, diagnosis, and treatment, transportation, city planning, 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 sensitization.
- Engage a community of actors interested in emergency 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.

WHAT TO EXPECT AS FELLOW

Media Fellows who are selected in the MSF program are provided with comprehensive support throughout their journey. This includes mentorship, subject matter sensitization, and training, as well as access to MSF projects and experts. 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, and amounts may vary depending on individual circumstances.

The Fellowship award covers a duration of three months for the project, with some projects requiring further consideration depending on the application and reporting proposal. Fellows are expected to publish their work within three months of receiving the Award.

THEMES

The Fellowship accepts applications and reporting proposals on various thematic areas, including but not limited to General Grant (applicants can choose from a range of themes) or the MSF-DNDi (Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative) Grant for Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs).

Maternal and Child Health	HIV / Advanced HIV	Emergency Response
Diabetes	Refugee Health	Climate Emergency
Occupational Health	Food Insecurity	Access to drugs
Mental Health	Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis	Neglected Tropical Diseases

The Fellowship welcomes applications and reporting proposals that:

Advance public understanding of health policy and human-interest stories focusing on health inequity and challenges to accessing healthcare.
Explore health disparities, their causes, and local, indigenous, or novel solutions.
Investigate socio-economic and cultural barriers that may restrict public health and well-being.

DELIVERABLES

Fellows will work closely with the MSF South Asia Communications Team and mentors to finalize their deliverables. They must ensure that the presentation or representation of any facts, anecdotes, and lived experiences, both medical and non-medical, that may affect patient privacy, rights, and access to healthcare, are closely reviewed.

Print/Digital News: Fellows must publish a minimum of three article series (800 words, feature, or analysis) or one long-form story (2500-3000 words) on a notable news platform. If the journalist is already working in a news organization, the organization must be willing to publish the story.

Multimedia: Fellows must publish one news feature (5-10mins) photo essay or illustrations supported with text (600 words).

As part of their application, candidates must include letters of commitment from news outlets, national or international, to publish or broadcast their work.

Fellows will be encouraged to participate in a webinar/Facebook Live session, ideally in association with another organization/MSF/media platform where the stories are published, where each fellow will speak about their work and highlight the cause.

PUBLICATION OF WORK

In addition to the award, MSF expects news organizations to pay journalists for their work. In exceptional cases, we may consider stipends to cover a reporter’s time. If you are applying on behalf of a newsroom, please note that we do not allow overhead or indirect expenses in our budgets. For multimedia journalists, especially those producing news feature stories, MSF South Asia will feature their work on its website (www.msfsouthasia.org) as well.

APPLICATION GUIDE

As the selection for the Without Borders Media Fellowship is competitive, we ask applicants to provide:

Story pitch: Description of the story you seek to pursue during your Fellowship. MSF expects a concrete story pitch.
Pre-reporting by the applicant on the subject will be of advantage to the application.
A compelling, well-researched pitch (with references to add context) with a reporting plan will help stand out among dozens of applicants. (500-750 words).
Travel and dissemination plan: Applicants must share a travel plan that lists out the preferred start and end dates of the fellowship, field visit dates, locations, risks involved (legal and physical), stakeholders involved, etc.
Three examples (links) of your most relevant stories (to the pitch) published in the last one year.
A letter of commitment or interest from a media organization(s) that would publish your story(ies) Names and contacts of two professional references.
CV or Resume.

PUBLICATION OF WORK

In addition to the Fellowship award, MSF expects news organizations to pay journalists for their work. However, in exceptional cases, we may consider stipends to cover a reporter’s time. If you are applying on behalf of a newsroom, please note that we do not allow overhead or indirect expenses in our budgets. For multimedia journalists, especially those producing news feature stories, MSF South Asia will feature their work on its website (www.msfsouthasia.org).

FELLOWS

MSF introduced a fellowship for media in India in 2016 as part of its larger vision to close engage with the media. Following its success, in 2018, MSF India extended an invitation to collaborate with MSF South Africa to make it an international media fellowship. In 2022, MSF South Asia, formerly MSF India, under its new scope and mandate, is expanding the scope of the fellowship and re-branding it as the Without Borders Media Fellowship.

The Fellowship hosts a reporting grant in MSF South Asia, which is co-owned with internal and external partners, to support media professionals with grants towards in-depth and high impact reporting on health and humanitarian aid issues.

Past Fellows and their work:

Adnan Bhat

Theme: Substance abuse fuelling HIV, Hepatitis C and TB cases in Kashmir. Adnan Bhat is an award-winning journalist. He writes and produces stories on the intersection of social movements, politics, health, and technology. His work has appeared in various reputed international media publications such as Foreign Policy, Al Jazeera, Rest of World, South China Morning Post among others.

Amitha Balachandra

Theme: Difficulties in accessing healthcare for survivors of sexual and gender-based violence in Delhi, India. Amitha Balachandra has over 8 years of experience as a journalist in audio-visual media and is based in Mumbai, India. She has previously worked at Bloomberg TV India and Times Network, and currently works with journalist Faye D'Souza for her digital news start-up. Amitha covers human rights stories, with a focus on injustice and public health.

Ketholeno Neihu

Theme: Difficulties in accessing healthcare for Tuberculosis in Nagaland, India. Ketholeno Neihu is a journalist based in Nagaland, India and writes for ‘The Morung Express’, an English daily based in Dimapur, Nagaland. She has worked on a range of topics related to women, human rights, politics, law, and rural issues. She has been a recipient of the InOldNews Mobile Journalism Fellowship, 2020; REACH India Media Fellowship for reporting on TB 2021, and SCARF India Essence Media Fellowship for Sensitive Reporting on Mental health 2021.

Nitasha Natu

Theme: Impact of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence on the Health of Sex Workers in Maharashtra, Delhi, and West Bengal in India. Nitasha Natu is a Senior Assistant Editor with the Times of India in Mumbai. She is a postgraduate in law from Mumbai University. Over the past 19 years, she has written extensively on gender, human rights, violence against women and children, and road safety. Nitasha was an International Reporting Project (IRP) fellow and has reported on health and development from Ecuador. She received a Laadli Media and Advertising Award for Gender Sensitivity in the Print (News) category in 2021. In 2022, her news report on the human cost of road crashes was awarded second place in India by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ).

Endless Cycle Of Violence, Health Risks: No Respite For India's Sex Workers

Oishika Neogi

Theme- Mental health and healthcare access issues for Covid orphans in Delhi and Maharashtra, India. Oishika Neogi is a human rights researcher and journalist based in Delhi, India. Her focus lies on issues of identity, gender-based politics, hate crimes, and communal conflicts. Over the past few years, Oishika has extensively worked with survivors of targeted violence and marginalisation, and has produced on-ground reportage for platforms such as Al Jazeera, The Wire, Article-14, Scroll.in, and Toward Freedom, amongst others. Her research work has also been presented at conferences looking at South Asia and human rights across City College of New York, University of Edinburgh, and State University of New York (Buffalo).

The Pandemic Has Faded, But Thousands Of Orphaned Children Need Help & Counselling

Ritwika Mitra

Theme: Impact of climate change on the mental health of women in Sundarbans in West Bengal, India and Bangladesh. Ritwika Mitra is an independent journalist who writes on climate change, migration, hunger, health, and the criminal justice system with a gendered lens. She has previously worked with The Indian Express, Deccan Herald, and The New Indian Express. In 2016, she received the Chevening Scholarship to pursue a degree in International Relations with a pathway in gender at the University of Birmingham.

‘Forest Means Fear’: Tiger Attacks in the Sundarbans

RUPSA CHAKRABORTY

Theme: Nirbhaya funds and one-stop crisis centers in Maharashtra, India. Rupsa Chakraborty works as a Special Correspondent with The Indian Express in Maharashtra where she covers issues related to health, gender sensitivity, and rural development. She has won Laadli Media Awards three times and has worked with several dailies across the country, including Hindustan Times, Midday, Deccan Herald, Times of India, and Ahmedabad Mirror.

Udisa Islam

Theme: Mental Health of Refugees in Bangladesh. Udisa Islam has been a journalist for the past two decades and is currently based in Dhaka, Bangladesh as the Special Correspondent for Bangla Tribune. She has worked at various top media houses on issues such as women and child health, human rights, law, and good governance. She has also worked with Research Initiative Bangladesh (RIB) on enhancing development journalism and has been associated with research work on the rights of indigenous people in Chittagong Hill Tracts. She was awarded the 'Best Reporter in Anti-Drug Reporting' by 'The Daily Prothom Alo', a leading daily newspaper in Bangladesh. She has authored several seminal books on communal violence, women's rights, films, and media. She is currently pursuing her PhD under the Anthropology department of Jahangirnagar University in Dhaka.

Wisal Yousafzai

Theme: Maternal health in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Wisal Yousafzai is a journalist based in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan as staff reporter for The Express Tribune, a leading English daily of Pakistan. He has worked with several prominent newspapers and radio stations and has covered a diverse range of issues connected to health, environment, refugees, militancy and military operations. As a freelancer he has worked for the Reuters News Agency and covered the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan and the Taliban takeover. He has also contributed as a freelancer to several publications such as Afghanistan Today, News Eye, Truth Tracker and Universal Press Independent (UPI). He is an alumnus of International Centre for Journalists (ICFJ) and East-West Centre on cross border mutual concerns. He is a member of the Peshawar Press Club (PPC) and Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ).

Mahima Jain

Mahima Jain is an award-winning independent journalist based in Bengaluru, India. She covers science, gender and socio-economic issues with a focus on inequity and injustice. As the Medicine Sans Frontiers Media Fellow, for Article-14 she wrote a narrative long-form piece reporting on why gender-based violence is a public health crisis. This story was a finalist for the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) Awards. Mahima was also a finalist for the Thomson Foundation Young Journalist Award 2021. She won a UNFPA Laadli Media Award, and was nominated for the One World Media Awards and Mumbai Press Club Red Ink Awards. You can explore her other work here: https://mahimajain.in/. She tweets @theplainjain and is @mahima.a.jain on Instagram.

Her experience with MSF fellowship

I applied for the MSF Fellowship in 2020 when I wished to explore what are the systemic issues that come in the way of tackling gender-based violence. This curiosity stemmed from the well-known fact that gender-based violence in India is underreported. I wanted to understand the role of the healthcare system in addressing gender-based violence, and if this is a public health crisis (which the WHO says it is). MSF’s Fellowship opening seemed like a good fit for such a project. When I got the Fellowship, I was very grateful that I now had the opportunity to do a long-term project which was rooted in on-ground reporting and research. As a freelance journalist, I feel like this reporting project would not have been possible without the Fellowship. More importantly, MSF staff also extended support in other ways, by connecting me with subject matter experts and other stakeholders. The Fellowship helped me break into reporting on health, while focusing on unequal access to healthcare. This Fellowship was a stepping stone in my journey as a journalist.

The Silent Pandemic Of Violence Against India’s Women

Swagata Yadavar

Swagata Yadavar is an award-winning independent journalist based in New Delhi. She writes on public policy, healthcare and gender-related themes. Previously, she worked with ThePrint, India’s leading news website, IndiaSpend, the country’s first data journalism website and The Week, a national magazine. Follow her work on @swagata_y.

Her experience with MSF fellowship

It was a very enriching experience for me to visit South Africa to study how they have been dealing with drug-resistant tuberculosis. I learnt how South Africa implemented a number of patient-centric initiatives that eased treatment for drug-resistant TB and made it a leading example of successful drug-resistant TB care in the world. My interviews with the MDR-TB patients and doctors helped me understand how new drugs like bedaquiline and delamanid, which were available to only a few thousands in the world, can reduce side effects and give patients a new lease of life. This experience helped inform my reporting on access to bedaquiline in India. I was also impressed by the MSF clinic staff in South Africa and the patient groups and came back inspired.

Why India Must Discard Fear, Give Some TB Patients ‘Game-Changing’ Drug

Vaishali Shah, Struck By Drug-Resistant TB, Petitioned The PM’s Office For A Drug That Saved Her. Others Died Waiting For It

Fighting Drug-Resistant TB: What India Can Learn From South Africa’s Successes

Ankur Paliwal

Ankur Paliwal is an independent journalist who writes about science, inequity, and his LGBTQIA+ community. He has reported from India, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana, Germany and the United States for various Indian and international media outlets. He currently lives in New Delhi.

His experience with MSF fellowship

MSF’s fellowship provided me with the resources I needed to gain a deeper understanding of the gaps in the diagnosis of Tuberculosis in India. With the help of this fellowship, I could spend enough time with the patients, care providers, researchers, and doctors to form an understanding about why so many patients continue to fall through the cracks in the public health system and develop drug-resistant TB.

In India’s Fight Against Tuberculosis, Diagnostics Remains Poorly Understood

Pradeep Surin

Pradeep Surin has more than 15 years of experience in active journalism and has been associated with CNN-IBN, News-X and Dainik Bhaskar to name a few. During his stint in media, he got many opportunities to conduct debates and chat shows on health for All India Radio and was regularly invited as a guest speaker for NDTV, Doordarshan, Lok Sabha TV and Rajya Sabha TV. He was a facilitator for UNICEF in training journalists in Public Health reporting and was a lead mentor with the Thomson Reuters Foundation in drafting ‘Critical Appraisal Skills’ course for health journalists. He is a guest faculty member at the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi and has been awarded with several fellowships across the globe, including those by the World Health Organization and Johns Hopkins University.

His experience with MSF fellowship

In my opinion, MSF Media Fellowship was one of the most wonderful experiences I have had. The process of selection was very smooth and throughout the fellowship, there was complete journalistic freedom. The team at MSF was very prompt in terms of facilitating information on specific subjects. Tuberculosis is my favourite subject in terms of research and that is why I decided to report on it for the fellowship. I don’t think except MSF there is any other organization which would help a journalist understand ground realities in India with such clarity.

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Dr Anant Bhan

Dr Anant Bhan is trained as a medical doctor with a Master’s degree in Bioethics from the University of Toronto. He is an Adjunct Visiting Professor, Yenepoya (deemed to be University) in Karnataka,India. He is the Immediate Past President of the International Association of Bioethics. His work is focused on ethics and equity in health, mental health, digital health, public health ethics, research ethics, community engagement, ethics of innovative technologies and ethics training for professionals. He also serves as guest faculty in various educational institutions in India and abroad and has been a reviewer for multiple journals, conference scientific committees and international grant competitions. He serves as the Bhopal (India) hub lead and mentor for Sangath which is a not-for-profit organisation that works on making mental health services accessible and affordable.

Dr Chandrakant Lahariya

Dr Chandrakant Lahariya is one of India’s leading doctors, infectious diseases and preventive medicine specialist. He is also an expert in child health and vaccines. He has worked for the World Health Organisation for over 14 years at all three levels – country office in India, regional office in Brazzaville, Africa and Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. He has received several prestigious awards including Indian Council of Medical Research’s ‘Dr BC Shrivastava Foundation Award’ in 2012. In 2020 and 2021, he was listed among the top 2% global researchers in the field of Pediatrics and Public Health by a Stanford University research. He is the Founding Director of Foundation for People-centric Health Systems, which is a not for profit organization in Delhi (India) which works towards reducing the burden of diseases and preventable mortalities. He is also the lead author of the bestselling book ‘Till We Win: India’s Fight Against The COVID-19 Pandemic.

Dr Bhishmaraj Shrivastava

Dr Bhishmaraj Shrivastava A physician by qualification, Dr Bhishmaraj started off his public health career at MSF in 2014 while working with Operational Centre Amsterdam (MSF-OCA). Subsequently he pursued his Masters in Public Health and Business Administration in a dual degree program (MPH/MBA) at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore-USA. Through Hopkins, he had the opportunity to work in Sierra Leone, Uganda, and Philippines among others while collaborating with organizations like Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW)- India, National Institute of Health (NIH) – USA , Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)- USA among others. His areas of interest include program management and exploring the role of innovation for healthcare systems in resource limited settings. He is currently serving in the Strategic Medical Lead position at MSF-South Asia Executive Branch Office and the Editorial Lead for Asia Scientific Days event.

Dr tareq Salahuddin

Dr tareq Salahuddin Dr Tareq Salahuddin is an award-winning journalist, writer and public health professional from Bangladesh. He is currently working as Editor of the Health section in ‘ThDr Tareq Salahuddin is an award-winning journalist, writer and public health professional from Bangladesh. He is currently working as Editor of the Health section in ‘The Daily Star’, the leading English daily of Bangladesh. He is the founding Editor and Special Correspondent of ‘News Hour’, an online news agency. Dr. Tareq is a J2J Fellow on HIV/AIDS and a member of the International AIDS Society. He is an active advocate on health rights of women, girls and children. He was honored by ‘Women Deliver’ for consistent and game-changing coverage of maternal, sexual and reproductive health and rights issues at the global and national level. He is a member of the Public Health Association of Bangladesh (PHAB). He is also a former member of the Governing Council and the Policy Committee of World Federation of Public Health Associations (WFPHA).e Daily Star’, the leading English daily of Bangladesh. He is the founding Editor and Special Correspondent of ‘News Hour’, an online news agency. Dr. Tareq is a J2J Fellow on HIV/AIDS and a member of the International AIDS Society. He is an active advocate on health rights of women, girls and children. He was honored by ‘Women Deliver’ for consistent and game-changing coverage of maternal, sexual and reproductive health and rights issues at the global and national level. He is a member of the Public Health Association of Bangladesh (PHAB). He is also a former member of the Governing Council and the Policy Committee of World Federation of Public Health Associations (WFPHA).

Joe Wallen

Joe Wallen is the South Asia and Global Health Security Correspondent at the Daily Telegraph newspaper, a publication with one of the largest circulations in the world. Based out of Mumbai, he has reported right across the region for three-and-a-half years, remaining in India throughout the devastating Covid-19 pandemic. He is a multi-award-winning human rights correspondent, specialising in development and public health, whose investigations have consistently led to public policy reform in South Asia.

Leena Menghaney

Leena Menghaney is a lawyer and has worked on the rights-based approach to public health, starting her career with the AIDS treatment movement to more recently contributing to efforts to increase access to COVID therapeutics and vaccines in India. She is currently the Regional Head (South Asia) and Global IP(Intellectual Property) Advisor with the Access Campaign in Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders. She works to build partnerships between MSF medical/pharmaceutical experts and legal aid lawyers, the people’s health movement, feminist organisations and patient groups in the global south to increase access to affordable vaccines, medicines, and tests in low and middle-income countries for diseases like HIV, drug-resistant TB, Hepatitis, cancer, and COVID-19 for vulnerable and excluded populations. She has contributed to health journalism by regularly contributing opinions and articles to independent media.

Meera Devi

Meera Devi is the Managing Editor at Khabar Lahariya, the country’s only women-run brand of ethical and independent rural news. With over 14 years of experience of reporting on rural issues, she specializes in investigative journalism and policy reporting. Her special reports have included lifting the curtains off the administrative apathy around the broken healthcare systems combating tuberculosis in the rural hinterland of Uttar Pradesh. She also hosts a fortnightly show on local politics, titled ‘Rajneeti, Ras, Raay’.

Sumegha Asthana

Sumegha Asthana Dr Sumegha Asthana is a Postdoctoral research fellow at the Center for Global Health Science and Security & Adjunct faculty, Department of Health Management and Policy, School of Health at Georgetown University, Washington DC. She is a physician, health administrator, and a health policy and systems researcher. She works at the intersection of global health governance, health security, influence of development aid on national health policies, gender, and mainstreaming of alternative systems of medicine in public health. She is an advocate for decolonizing global health and building Health policy and system research capacities in low and middle income countries. She has earlier worked as an independent public health consultant with multiple international and national health care organizations. She is an honorary lecturer at Queen Mary University London, where she taught global health policy and governance and an adjunct faculty at The Institute of Public Health in Bengaluru where she teaches for the India HPSR Fellowship programme. She is the co-founder, in addition to the first chair, of the India chapter of a global social movement called Women in Global Health. Sumegha was recently named in Apolitical’s ‘100 Most Influential Academics in Government’ list in 2021.

RECOGNITION

MSF Fellow Mahima Jain’s story ‘The Silent Pandemic of Violence Against India’s Women’ was a finalist at the Editorial Excellence Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) Awards 2022. It was selected under the Excellence in Reporting on Women’s Issues (Regional) category. She was also selected as one of the top three finalists for the Thomson Foundation Young Journalist Award 2021. The story ‘The Silent Pandemic’ was a part of her submission.