Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) is excited to officially open the applications for the 2021 lsu Elihle Awards. Journalists within the African continent are invited to apply for these Awards which open today (01 April 2021) and close on the 30th of April 2021. MMA is also proud to announce its partnership with UNICEF for this years awards. This partnership will surely help us enhance and enrich the awards to better heights.
“Isu Elihle” is an isiZulu phrase and could be translated into English as a beautiful, great or simply a neat solution. The Isu Elihle Awards were launched in 2016 by MMA with the support of Save the Children International, the Swedish International Development Agency and Media Network on Child Rights Development (MNCRD) based in Zambia. The awards seek to contribute to a change in attitudes and behaviors of opinion and decision-makers and citizens across the country and continent from the premise that the media frames debates in society and carries enormous influence and, therefore, ability to drive positive change. This year marks five years since these Awards were launched.
These Awards aim to encourage journalist to highlight issues that are faced by children in the continent. Journalist from more than twenty countries have applied in the previous years and diverse issues about children have been raised. This shows that these awards have gained a lot of traction within the continent. We encourage journalist to submit their unique story ideas within the started time frame.
MMA’s awards seek to give children a voice and highlight the status of children in our continent. Journalists are encouraged to submit their story ideas and these can be targeted at any mainstream news medium such as TV, Radio or Online. The top six story ideas will then be selected during an online Awards ceremony in June.
Journalists behind these ideas will each receive guaranteed financial support of ZAR 10 000. MMA will also offer support to the finalists to develop their concepts. The final stories will be ranked and the final cash prizes will be awarded as follows: ZAR 25 000 (Overall Winner); ZAR 15 000 (2nd place); ZAR 10 000 (Third Place).
For more details, terms and conditions as well as the Application Form visit the Isu Elihle Award’s website www.isuelihle.org!
For enquiries please contact: Girlie Sibanda girlies@mma.org.za
On Monday, 14 December 2020, Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) announced the 2020 lsu Elihle Awards winner. “Isu Elihle is an isiZulu phrase that means a “Great Idea” when translated to English, these Awards were launched in 2016 and has been running for four years. The Awards aim to encourage fresh reporting, innovative approaches and insightful investigations that seek to give children a voice and elevate the status of the child all over Africa. In the past two years, the awards were open only for journalists in the Eastern and Southern Africa but from 2018, journalists from all over Africa were included.
We are excited to announce this year’s winners: 1st prize and overall winner of the 2020 Awards goes to Kathryn Cleary who is a freelance health journalist for Spotlight based in Cape Town, South Africa. Cleary is awarded for her six-part series coverage on the impact of the Covid19 pandemic and lockdown on the nutritional status of children in South Africa. She receives a cash prize of ZAR25, 000 after being ranked the overall winner by a panel of judges who are media practitioners. The judges commented on her reporting by saying,” Kathryn lets the facts speak for themselves and does not attempt to pull any emotional strings, she knows she doesn’t need to. Read the story here.
The second prize of ZAR15 000 goes to Tatenda Chitagu for his story titled, “Covid19: Children’s horror tales from isolation canters”. He looked at the poor conditions in which returnee children had to face in Zimbabwe’s Covid19 isolation and quarantine centres, these posed a great risk to their health. Chitangu is multi-media journalist from Masvingo, Zimbabwe. He corresponds for News Day as well as the Washington Post. The judges commented on his story saying,” A well written story that did access a range of children’s voices as well as experts and government. I wanted to see images as well as perhaps go more into depth about how these centres are violating children’s rights in accordance with the provisions of the constitution. Chitagu receives a cash prize of R15 000.Read the story here.
The 3rd prize of ZAR10 000 goes to Matiisetso Mosala for her story about the education gaps between learners in Lesotho .She reveals how underprivileged children are forced to drop out of school because they cannot afford school fees. Her article is titled, “Lesotho’s education system now shutting out kids from poor families” was published at the Centre for investigative journalism website. Matiisetso is an investigative journalist from the Mountain Kingdom of Lesotho. Currently she is an Investigative Journalism fellow at MNN Centre for Investigative Journalism based in Maseru, Lesotho. The judges commented on her reporting saying, “The journalist does her best to minimise harm, and shows commendable awareness of all the ethical concerns”. Read the story here.
However there was no Mandy Roussouw category winner this year, even though the stories were great, the powerful were not held accountable in their stories. The Isu Elihle Awards 2021 application date will be announced soon, we call upon journalists from all over Africa to enter the awards. Congratulations to all the winners!
Media Monitoring Africa announce the lsu Elihle 2020 finalists! On Monday the 31st of August Media Monitoring Africa announced this year’s lsu Elihle finalists. They are from four countries with in the African continent. They are Zimbabwe’s Tatenda Chitagu and Mercy Mubaiwa. South Africa’s Luzuko Sonkapu and Kathryn Clearly. Lesotho’s Matiisetso Mosala and Nigeria’s Kunle Adebajo.
Meet the Finalists:
Luzuko Sonkapu
18-Year-old RX Radio Young Reporter Luzuko Sonkapu was born and raised in Cape Town, New Crossroads. Luzuko lives with a chronic illness, Spinal Muscular Atrophy and is wheelchair bound. He joined RX Radio in 2018 and has already achieved great milestones on his journey. He hosts his own show called Ace the Rapper’s Space speaking to his love for rap and Hip-Hop music, while also sharing his platform with other young artists. Luzuko also recently represented RX Radio in the WHO: Reboot Health and Wellbeing Innovative Challenge, which resulted in the team being one of two winners in this Challenge. Together with a team of RX Young Reporters and a content producer, Luzuko brought home the win based on the station’s Children’s Voices on COVID-19 programme, and RX Radio’s response to the pandemic. Luzuko in his spare time enjoys being with his family and friends. He has a love for Philosophy and enjoys reading research books focusing on his favourite topic, the meaning of life.
Tatenda Chitagu
Tatenda Prosper Chitagu is a multi-media Journalist and fact checker from Zimbabwe with more than ten years’ experience. He corresponds for The Newsday as well as The Washington Post while based in the southern city of Masvingo. He is a holder of a Msc degree in Media and Society Studies, Chitagu has been a fellow at The Reuter’s Institute for The Study of Journalism (RISJ) at the University of Oxford (2017-2018).He is the current winner of the UNICEF Child journalist of the year in Zimbabwe.
Mercy Mubaiwa
Mercy has been working in the field of communication and film for about 3 years. She identifies herself as a Digital storyteller, Education activist, Women and children’s rights Activist, environmental activist .Mercy holds a Bsc in Media and Society Studies, Certificates in Global Journalism; Safety, Peace and Conflict, Community Engagement, & Documentary Filmmaking and is currently reading for an M.Phil inn Media Studies. She is a member of the Bosch Alumni Network and enjoy Travelling, Photography and Film.
She has developed and cultivated love for communication for development. Mercy has worked as a, Communication for Development Officer, Public Relations officer, Reporter, script writer, social media manager and on various film productions alternating roles. Mercy loves travelling, networking, reading writing and meeting new people and has grown to be very passionate about Child rights issues and research. Her research interests are Education, Health, Child rights, student movements, gender, women affairs, culture preservation and memory, sustainable development and climate change. She loves working with people to improve their livelihoods and believes in telling Stories4Change
Kathryn Clearly
Kathryn is a freelance health journalist based in Cape Town, South Africa. She strives to pursue stories that push the boundaries of traditional journalism and reporting, and bring those often silenced and under-represented voices to the fore. She is extremely passionate about the issues of child hunger and malnutrition, and it is her hope that through the Isu Elihle Awards she can explore these issues from multiple angles, as well as through the eyes and voices of children who experience them on a daily basis. She says that children are the future, but more importantly, they are the now, and that needs to be reflected in journalism.”
Kunle Adebajo
Kunle Adebajo is a trained lawyer, freelance writer, and senior investigative reporter at HumAngle. He is currently a fellow of Dubawa and was a 2019 Africa Check fellow. He is the editor of non-fiction and cultural criticism at Agbowo and editor-in-chief of Punocracy. Kunle is passionate about human rights, educational reform, and political accountability. He has won a number of journalism awards including the 2018 Alfred Opubo Prize for Opinion, 2018 Budeshi Datathon Writers’ Challenge, and 2019 West Africa Medica Excellence Award for Best Telecommunications Report.
Matiisetso Mosala
She is a young enthusiastic Investigative journalist from the Mountain Kingdom of Lesotho. Currently she is an Investigative Journalism fellow at MNN Centre for Investigative Journalism based in Maseru, Lesotho. She has five years’ experience in journalism, reporting on topics that include health, business, education and finance and investigations for different media houses. She is passionate about giving voice to the voiceless, bringing about positive impact to lives and holding those in power accountable.
Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) has closed its entries for the 2020 lsu Elihle Awards. Journalists from within the African continent were invited to submit their story ideas involving children. The applications closed at midnight on the 30th of June 2020.
The story ideas will be adjudicated by our distinguished panel of judges which include children and the top six finalists will be announced in August. The journalists behind these will each receive a guaranteed financial support of ZAR 10 000. MMA will also offer support to the finalists to develop their concepts. Individual journalists must take sole responsibility to approach a media house and form an agreement to publish/broadcast with the media house in question should their story idea be selected as part of the top six.
The final stories will be ranked once they have been published or broadcast, and the final cash prizes will be awarded: ZAR 25 000 (Overall Winner); ZAR 15 000 (2nd place); ZAR 10 000 (Third Place).
MMA Director William Bird said,”As we deal with the global COVID-19 crisis we have seen how the importance of people having access to quality journalism has become increasingly essential in their daily lives. At the same time we are seeing news media facing an equal crisis of sustainability and fewer journalists. We also know that in a crisis it is the most vulnerable whose views and voices need to be heard and protected.
Around our continent it is children who are the most marginalized and yet their issues and stories that involve them have the greatest potential for change and to build societies that are just, fair and equitable. The lsu Elihle awards recognizes the difficult context and seek to reward journalists who have the best story ideas so that not only can we ensure quality journalism, we can develop as an essential service, but also ensure that stories about the most vulnerable and precious members of our society can be told”.
We would like to thank everyone who has applied, these awards have gained a huge traction across the African continent. We are thrilled this year to have received more than a hundred entries from 20 different countries around the continent.
Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) encourages African journalists to enter for the child-centered awards as entries close in ten days. All story ideas are to be submitted by midnight on the 30th of June 2020.
Story ideas can be targeted at any mainstream news medium such as TV, Radio or Online. The top six ideas will be selected and announced during an awards ceremony in September. The journalists behind these will each receive an award trophy and a guaranteed financial support of ZAR 10 000. MMA will also offer support to the finalists to develop their concepts. individual journalists must take sole responsibility to approach a media house and form an agreement to publish/broadcast with the media house in question should their story idea be selected as part of the top six.
Once published the top six stories will be ranked to top three and cash prizes will be awarded as follows, R25 000 (Overall winner), R15 000 (2nd place) and R10 000 (3rd place). The fourth cash prize for The Isu Elihle Mandy Rossouw Accountability Category is conditional. It will only be awarded if there is a story (in the top six) that meets the criteria for the category. The amount of money to be awarded for the Mandy Rossouw prize will be determined on the quality of the story published.
Project Coordinator at MMA, Girlie Sibanda says, “It is sad that despite them being the future children are seldom reported on in the media, these awards seek to challenge such stereotypes by making sure that journalists highlight children’s issues in the country and within the continent”.
For more details, terms and conditions as well as the Application Form visit the Isu Elihle Award’s website www.isuelihle.org
Entries are open for the Media Monitoring Africa lsu Elihle Awards 2020.
Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) invites journalists within the African continent to apply for the lsu Elihle Awards. Applications for this year’s awards open today (15 May 2020) and will close at midnight on the 30th of June 2020.
“Isu Elihle” is an isiZulu phrase and could be translated into English as a beautiful, great or simply a neat solution”.
MMA’s awards seek to give children a voice and highlight the status of children in our continent. Journalists are encouraged to submit their story ideas and these can be targeted at any mainstream news medium such as TV, Radio or Online. The top six story ideas will then be selected during an awards ceremony which will be held in September. Journalists behind these ideas will each receive guaranteed financial support of ZAR 10 000. MMA will also offer support to the finalists to develop their concepts. The final stories will be ranked and the final cash prizes will be awarded as follows: ZAR 25 000 (Overall Winner); ZAR 15 000 (2nd place); ZAR 10 000 (Third Place).
The media can play an important role in protecting and promoting children’s rights and, in many instances, in exposing their abuses and triumphs. This is informed by the belief that children are not a homogenous group and deserve protection of their rights in all stages of their lives from early childhood development right up until they are legally considered to be adults. The Isu Elihle Awards therefore aim to encourage alternative thinking around reporting on children, and to contribute to an environment that enables journalists to expose and highlight issues affecting children in the country and the continent.
For more details, terms and conditions as well as the Application Form visit the Isu Elihle Award’s website www.isuelihle.org
Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) announces the application date for the lsu Elihle Awards. This year’s applications will open on the 15th of May 2020.
Translated from IsiZulu to mean “Great Idea”, the Isu Elihle Awards aim to encourage fresh reporting and insightful investigations that seek to give children a voice and highlight the various issues they face across our continent.This is done by inviting journalists from across Africa to submit original child-centred news story ideas for publication or broadcasting in mainstream news media.
Story ideas can be targeted at any mainstream news medium such as TV, Radio or Online. The top six story ideas will be selected and announced during an AWARDS ceremony. The journalists behind these will each receive guaranteed financial support of ZAR 10 000. MMA will also offer support to the finalists to develop their concepts. The final stories will be ranked once they have been published or broadcast, and the final cash prizes will be awarded: ZAR 25 000 (Overall Winner); ZAR 15 000 (2nd place); ZAR 10 000 (Third Place).
Last year’s winner, Thomas Bwire said, “I entered the awards because l wanted to scale up the voices of children because in our reporting as journalists in Kenya or even Africa we don’t tell stories about children in most cases we don’t even get to hear voices of children in our storytelling, we just focus so much about politics and other stories but leave out children in our storytelling”. We courage journalist to start thinking about their story ideas and how they can ethically report on issues faced by an African child while making sure that their voices are uplifted
For more details, terms and conditions visit the Competition Information page on the Isu Elihle Award’s website
On Saturday, 1st of February 2020, Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) announced the 2019 lsu Elihle Awards winner live on SABC news. “Isu Elihle is an isiZulu phrase that means a “Great Idea” when translated to English, the Awards were launched in 2016 and has been running for four years. The Awards aim to encourage fresh reporting, innovative approaches and insightful investigations that seek to give children a voice and elevate the status of the child all over Africa. In the past two years, the awards were open only for journalists in the Eastern and Southern Africa but from 2018, journalists from all over Africa were included.
We are excited to announce the winners:
1st prize and winner of the 2019 Awards goes to Thomas Otieno Bwire, who is an Early Childhood development Journalist from Habari Kibra in Kenya.The overall winner of this year’s organisation’s lsu Elihle Awards is Thomas Bwire, who is awarded for his in-depth coverage of the conditions that children in the Kibera slums are forced to live in. He says the lack of open spaces in the area has led to children not having any place to play, this is bad because play is an important part of each child’s development. Children were also given a voice to reveal how this affects them. Bwire receives a cash prize of ZAR25, 000 after being ranked the overall winner by a panel of judges who are media practitioners. The judges commented on his reporting by saying, ”it is an excellent story that engages those who are involved (children) and seeks out solutions “. Watch the video, ”No play space for children in Nairobi” slums here.
The second prize of ZAR15 000 goes to Jamaine Krige & Yeshiel Panchia for their four part series titled, “Scatterings, undocumented, unaccompanied foreign children in South Africa” which was published on Al Jezeera. They looked at the issue of foreign children who arrive in South Africa alone. They explore the lives of these children and how they struggle to get an education in South Africa due to lack of documents. The judges commented on their series saying, “it is a great feature which highlights statelessness, xenophobia, the lack of identity, lack of access to education as a result of being undocumented. The series could have strived to engage more in-depth with those who are in power.” Read the story here
The 3rd prize of ZAR10 000 goes to Athandiwe Saba for her story about education behind bars. It looked at how some children in the criminal justice system struggle to access an education and how this can affect their future. The article “The cracks children fall into when they are in conflict with the law”, was published in the Mail & Guardian newspaper. The judges commented on her in depth reporting saying, “it is a great story which looks at how most children behind bars are unable to access quality education”. Read the story “The cracks children fall into when they are in conflict with the law” here.
However there was no Mandy Roussouw category winner this year, even though the stories were great, the powerful were not held accountable in their stories. The Isu Elihle Awards 2020 application date will be announced soon, we call upon journalists from all over Africa to enter the awards.
Congratulations to all the winners!
South
Africa’s Athandiswa Saba, Jamaine Krige & Yeshiel Panchia, Uganda’s Ruth
Atim, Malawi’s Collins Mtika, Zimbabwe’s Kennedy Nyavaya and Kenya’s Thomas
Otieno Bwire were announced as the top contenders on Monday 21 October during a
ceremony held at JoziHub in Milpark Johannesburg, South Africa.
Ruth Atim
Ruth is a
Ugandan Journalist, She works for the Uganda Refugee Online Network (RON), (https://refugeeonlinews.wordpress.com)an online platform that publishes
articles, images and News pieces about refugees and Migrants. She is the
sub-Editor and reporter. Ruth is also a Digital safety trainer under her
initiative “The Gender Initiative- Uganda (https://www.genderinitiativeug.org) where she trains and empowers
journalists and human rights defenders on digital literacy, Cyber security and
Digital safety.
Collins Mtika
Collins was born in Malawi but bred in Zimbabwe
where his parents worked in the mines there. He did his primary and
secondary school level in Zimbabwe before he trekked back with his
parents to Malawi after some of the mines where closed in the late
1990s.He has worked for Malawi’s biggest media company, Times Media Group that
publishes, The Daily Times, Sunday Times, Malawi News and the defunct
The weekend Times where he was is Bureau Chief for the Northern region.
He also worked for the tri-weekly publication The
Guardian Newspaper as a Chief Reporter. He also corresponded for IPS
(AFRICA) and Collins is a Malawian Investigative Journalist and founder of
the Centre for Investigative Journalism in Malawi (CIJM) – www.investigative-malawi.org.
He heads the Investigations desk for Malawi’s popular online newspaper www.nyasatimes.com.
He is also the Malawi Correspondent for South African based weekly Mail &
Guardian newspaper as well as Africa Independent.
He is studying for BA in Communication Science with
the University of South Africa (UNISA) through distance learning. Collins
started journalism in 2003. Collins also has a certificate in Journalism from
Pen Point School of Journalism, a certificate in mental health, a Diploma in
Journalism from Agrrey Memorial and an advanced diploma in Journalism (ABMA).
Thomas Bwire
Award-winning
journalist with 10 years’ experience. Prior to founding Habari Kibra, Thomas
worked at Pamoja FM, for nine years as News Editor and health reporter. He
holds a BA in MassCommunication
from Mount Kenya University. With awards like The CNN Multi-Choice in 2013,
Internews StoryFest 2012 and Children Legal Action Network (CLAN) under his
belt, Thomas brings a wealth of journalism experience and network to the team
of Habari Kibra.
Thomas was
also among the two Kenyan journalists who participated in a yearlong
International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) September 2017-September 2018
Fellowship reporting on Early Childhood Development (ECD). This fellowship
program has cultivated a deeper interest to continue reporting on ECD stories to
date. Thomas is passionate about mentoring up-coming journalists so that they
too can become better storytellers for the job market especially within
informal settlements in Nairobi.
Athandiwe Saba
Athandiwe Saba is
a multi-award-winning investigative data journalist who is passionate about
data, human-interest issues, and good governance. She has worked for three of
the biggest newspapers in South Africa and recently established the Mail &
Guardian Data Desk which she now heads up. She
has been internationally recognised for her work in data journalism by
the Global Editors Network. She is an author, an avid reader and trying to find
the answer to the perfect balance between investigative journalism, online
audiences and the decline in newspaper sales. It’s a rough world and a
rewarding profession.
Kennedy Nyavaya
Kennedy Nyavaya
is a multiple award-winning journalist who works for one of the biggest private
media companies in Zimbabwe, Alpha Media Holdings. His stories have been published
in AMH’s three flagships: News Day, The Standard and Zimbabwe Independent as
well as several foreign platforms. He has a passion to catalyse
informed solutions in society through enlightening the masses. Throughout his
career he has travelled to different parts of the world on duty and has
amplified stories on vulnerable populations, the environment and
socio-political topics among others. With a firm belief that climate change is
the greatest threat to mankind’s existence, he has also developed zeal to
become an instrumental climate change activist. It is therefore in the bid to
ensure mitigation and adaption to the effects of the CC phenomenon,
particularly on vulnerable populations, that he has been on an advocacy drive
for environmentally friendly activities through radio programs on local radio
stations as well as articles in newspapers and social media.
Jamaine Krige & Yeshiel Panchia
Jamaine Krige
Jamaine
Krige is a multi-award winning broadcast journalist who picked up her pen at
age 14, writing for community papers, and has barely set it down since then.
She believes in the healing, transformative powers of storytelling. She
started her journalism career at the South African Broadcasting Corporation in
2014, where she spent the better part of five years telling stories of success
and failures, heartbreak and happiness. She was awarded the ATKV Media Veertjie
for Best Radio Documentary in 2018, as well as the SAB Environmental Journalism
Award for Audio. She was also the 2018 Isu Elihle winner for her story on
Scholar Transport Safety. She worked as an editor for a pan-african impact
communication company before returning to her first love – telling the stories
of the people she comes into contact with. She holds a degree in Psychology and
Criminology, and Honours degree in Journalism and is currently completing her
Psychology Honours degree.
Yeshiel Panchia
Yeshiel Panchia
is a freelance multimedia journalist based in Johannesburg, South Africa. With
a background in the corporate world, he was compelled to begin working in
photojournalism due to the upsurge of xenophobic violence some years ago. Since
then, he has worked as a staff photographer for The Citizen, stringer for The
Sunday Times and serviced many news agencies such as European Press photo
Agency (EPA), The Associated Press and Reuters, circulating many of his
pictures worldwide. He has a passion for documentary photography and hard news,
and works across the continent.
Media Monitoring Africa encourages journalists
across Africa to submit their story ideas for the organisation’s Isu
Elihle “Great Idea” Awards before the deadline at midnight on 23
September 2019.
Story ideas can be targeted at any mainstream news medium such as TV, Radio or Online. The top three story ideas will be selected and announced during an AWARDS ceremony that will be held in October 2019. The journalists behind these will each receive guaranteed financial support of ZAR 10 000. MMA will also offer support to the finalists to develop their concepts.
The final stories will be ranked once they have been published or broadcasted, and the final winners will be awarded: ZAR 25 000 (Overall Winner); ZAR 15 000 (2nd place); ZAR 10 000 (Third Place).
Project Coordinator at MMA, Girlie Sibanda says, “the call is for all African journalists to enter for these awards and it is important that they enter so that they will be able to promote children’s rights by reporting on both their abuse and achievements. This is a great opportunity for African journalists to showcase stories of African children. Journalists must however make sure that they follow the correct guidelines when reporting on children and make sure that they always put children’s best interests first”.
For more details, terms and conditions as well as the Application
Form visit the Isu Eihle Award’s website www.isuelihle.org
