Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) Without Borders Media Fellowship 2024-2025

Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) MSF is opening the call for proposals by journalists, photographers, filmmakers, and newsrooms editors to join the 2024-2025 cohort of the Without Borders Media Fellowship. This Fellowship aims to encourage humanitarian and health related journalistic reporting and leverages scientific storytelling to draw attention to emerging local or cross-border issues in the South Asia region.

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.

Stories from the heart of crises give a voice to vulnerable people, support medical and humanitarian advocacy, and encourage dialogue on humanitarian values. Awarded fellows will be encouraged to work together, build communities of practice, and support humanitarian actors to better understand crises and contexts, while working with compassion.

Grant Categories

There are two grant categories available for applicants to choose from:

General Grant (applicants can choose from a range of themes): The General Grant supports in-depth reporting across four themes:

• Refugee Health
• Maternal And Child Health
• Mental Health And
• Emergency Response

This grant will enable journalists to highlight and investigate a range of transversal subjects in South Asia through training, insightful storytelling and extensive field exposure. Successful applicants receive a grant to cover reporting costs and get access to experts to enrich the reporting process.

MSF-DNDi (Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative) Grant on Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs): 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. It emphasizes the need for targeted interventions such as safe, affordable and effective treatment and improved healthcare infrastructure. Recipients receive financial support for reporting expenses and access to DNDi experts to generate comprehensive reportage.

Benefits of Medecins Sans Frontieres

The Fellowship award aims to support media professionals by providing the following:

• They 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).
• Access to MSF projects
• Knowledge sharing on MSF’s model of care
• Mentorship
• Training/sensitization
• Resources to produce in-depth, insightful reporting.

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Eligibility for Medecins Sans Frontieres

• The welcome 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.

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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.
• Former fellows are eligible to apply, however, priority will be given to first-time applicants.

Application

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

• Story Proposal: MSF expects a concrete proposal including Title of the Proposal, location(s) of reporting, well-researched pitch with references (data, news story, examples) to add context (500-750 words).
• Medium of publication: Print, Digital, TV, Podcast
• Letter of commitment or interest from a media organization(s) that would publish your story(ies) Names and contacts of two professional references.
• Reporting plan: Applicants must share a detailed reporting plan that lists out the preferred start and end dates of the fellowship, field visit dates, locations, risks involved (legal and physical) etc. Pre-reporting by the applicant on the subject will be of advantage to the application.
• List of stakeholders (institutions, organizations, collectives and individuals) that you will contact for information or insight during the reporting process of the Fellowship.
• Three examples (links) of your most relevant stories (to the pitch) published recently.
• List of collaborators in this story, if any (for example stringers, data scientists, illustrators, photographers etc.)
• Tentative date of publication of this story.
• Statement of Motivation (300 words)
• CV or Resume.
• Contact details of two professional references.

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