The Other Side of the Story - A Year of Reporting from Eastern Congo

The Other Side of the Story:

A Year of Reporting From Eastern Congo

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The Other Side of the Story:

A Year of Reporting From Eastern Congo

Cover page: Women walk through the fields with Mount Mikeno volcano in the distance. Photo by Emma Beals.

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A view of Virunga National Park at dusk. Photo by Katie Falkenberg.

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Foreword: Finding New Narratives in Eastern Congo Eastern Congo is a place that captures your imagination, then your heart. It is also a place with a complicated history of conflict, one that can’t be summed up neatly in a 3-minute news report.

The dominant news narrative about Congo focuses on the seemingly never-ending conflict that has battered the vast nation, particularly its eastern provinces, the Kivus. At least five million Congolese men, women and children have died as a result of continuous cycles of fighting.

There is no question that more than two decades of war have taken a terrible toll on the Congolese, especially in North Kivu province. Huge swathes of the population have been displaced repeatedly from their communities. Dozens of armed groups have terrorized the region, often committing atrocities with impunity. There are many grim stories to tell in Congo. Those stories don’t give a full understanding of the complex, nuanced realities on the ground, or of the resilience of the people who call it home. In spite of everything wrong in Congo, hope lives on.

In 2014, the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) set out to go beyond the established narrative and find Eastern Congo’s untold stories of people living their lives despite hardships and working to improve their country’s future. However, reporting from the DRC is both prohibitively expensive for many journalists and difficult to access due to the Congo’s lack of infrastructure. To provide journalists with the opportunity to report on issues of global importance, the IWMF with the support of the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, created an international reporting program to bring 20 women journalists to Eastern Congo -no small feat.

When the IWMF began laying the groundwork for this unique undertaking in 2013, the challenges loomed large. Security assessments uncovered numerous risks; the notorious rebel group M23 was still active in the region and regularly shelling North Kivu’s provincial capital, Goma. However, as evidenced by our track record leading the first ever independent delegations of journalists to Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara in 2011 and 2012, the IWMF is willing to go to some of the most difficult and underreported places to help women reporters find stories that matter.

The IWMF led four groups of women journalists to report on the themes of conservation, civic engagement, the impact of aid, and economic development.

Each trip began with specialized security training provided by the organization

Global Journalist Security and briefings by Congo experts, followed by a week of incountry reporting, offering participating journalists a unique reporting experience.

During the reporting trips, the journalists met a wide array of people, including entrepreneurs, park rangers, residents of internally displaced persons camps, doctors, women’s rights advocates, fishermen, farmers, former child soldiers, peacekeepers, churchgoers, mechanics, lawyers, government and civil society leaders, local journalists and countless others.

They also learned some surprising facts about the region. For example, who knew that North Kivu province has a booming cheese industry centered in Masisi territory? Or that Virunga National Park, in addition to being home to a quarter of the world’s remaining mountain gorillas, is one of the most biodiverse spots on earth?

Participating journalists discovered stories of inspiration, like a Congolese men’s network creating support groups that teach positive masculinity and encourage men to reject domestic violence. And the enterprising young women in Goma breaking down gender barriers by training to become auto mechanics, a lucrative profession in a country with terrible roads.

As a result of our program, more than 40 stories from Eastern Congo have appeared in major media outlets including The New York Times, the BBC, the Daily Beast, The Guardian, Al Jazeera America, Global Post, Deutsche Welle, and many more.

In this overview you will meet the IWMF fellows who took part in the Congo program and experience through their reporting how the media narrative is finally starting to shift.

We’ve observed another outcome that we didn’t predict when launching our reporting trips: many of the journalists who have participated find that Congo gets under their skin in a way they never imagined. They don’t want to leave—and some end up staying for weeks, or even months, to continue their reporting. Once back home, they look for ways to return to tell more stories from this resilient country and share them with a global audience.

Nadine Hoffman Director of Programs

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North Kivu North Kivu, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, has been at the centre of conflict, displacement and instability in that country for almost two decades.The driving events include the decomposition of the regime of Mobutu Sese Seko, the Rwandan genocide and its spillover effects, the armed contestation for state power and resource wealth between rival factions of the Congolese political class and most of the country’s neighbours, and the subsequent proliferation of dozens of armed groups operating widely and freely. North Kivu was at the centre of all of these events, and remains the heartland of conflict. – Doctors Without Borders report on humanitarian response in North Kivu, July 2013

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Simone learnsSIDE howOFtoTHE treat a stabA wound a hostile environment and first aid course in Nairobi. Photo by Allison Shelley.

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Security Training Security training can sometimes mean the difference between life and death for journalists. The IWMF recognizes its critical importance and how difficult this type of training can be to obtain for journalists, particularly freelancers who are often working on a shoe-string budget. As part of its commitment to continuing to provide this type of training to female journalists, prior to each reporting trip to Eastern Congo, the IWMF held a three-day hostile environments and first aid training course for its fellows.

When we first embarked on leading international reporting programs, we were dismayed by the number of professional journalists who despite frequently working in dangerous situations, never had the opportunity to receive proper first aid and security training or even obtain basic insurance. It is a dangerous reality with which many journalists contend.

Our aim in providing security training prior to reporting trips is to ensure that journalists are equipped with the skills they need to stay as safe as possible.

As we expand our international reporting programs and in country fellowship programs, security training will remain a core part of our mission. We believe every journalist should have the opportunity to learn how to protect herself when doing her job.

The IWMF partnered with the organization Global Journalist Security to provide training for our reporting fellows. Frank Smyth, Executive Director of Global Journalist Security and Senior Security Advisor for the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), reflected on the training: Nestled in the highlands north of Nairobi, a group of women journalists engaged in three days of hostile environment and emergency first-aid training. They learned how to stop a wound spurting arterial blood, how to try and navigate a hostile mob, and how to dive for cover during a mortar shower. More importantly, the journalists, who include a number of inspiring, young professionals who are already trusted role models for others, learned how they react to stressful situations. “I feel like a learned about myself,” said one Kenyan journalist. “I learned how I can be triggered,” said one American reporter. One participating journalist with experience working in several conflict zones had to check her own instinct to fight when confronted by a group of

stick-wielding men shouting insults and threatening violence. Another had to manage a distraught mother blaming the group for her husband being severely injured in a traffic accident. A third trainee struggled to treat a moaning mother whose intestines were exposed after the accident.

Each scene described was a training simulation, designed by trainers, and executed by professional actors, Kenyan film and stage performers who rose to the challenge.

In one village scene, the journalists arrived to conduct interviews. The actors were instructed to act as if they were divided over whether to continue welcoming or to turn on the visiting newswomen. Improvising on the spot, they divided the village along tribal lines to create a scenario of rising tension that took both the trainers and trainees by surprise.

The captivity exercise was especially intense. “My heart skipped a beat,” said one woman serving as an emotional safety liaison during the role-playing session when she heard what she thought was the sound of a summary execution. Emotional self awareness and care is integrated into every aspect of the training, and every participant including actors can opt out on demand without explanation, as a few in nearly every case always do.

There are many lessons to learn. To impart them safely requires establishing a safe space for emotions to arise. Trainees may need time and support to process them without being judged.

Learning practical skills to try and stay safe under fire is another integral part of the training. This includes knowing what a Kalashnikov rifle can do when fired into a car, or the distance that shrapnel can travel on hard ground, or the benefits of getting close to mother earth whenever hot metal is flying.

The basics of digital security comprise another training module, including the dangers of email attachments, the concept behind threat modeling, and the trade-offs and combinations of encryption, anonymity and stealth when it comes to operational security.

The common thread is to empower trainees, whether journalists or humanitarians, to take responsibility for their own safety and security at every turn.

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Emma Beals is a New Zealander / British freelance journalist, based in southern Turkey. She has an interest in conflict and social issues and has most recently been reporting on Syria for a variety of television, newspaper and online publications.

Bianca Consunji is a journalist and video producer at Mashable. Her freelance work has also appeared in The New York Times, City Limits, and the Gothamist, among others.

Katie Falkenberg is a staff photographer at the Los Angeles Times. Her photography and multimedia work have been recognized

by Pictures of the Year International, the White House News Photographers Association, and the National Press Photographers Association.

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A crowd gathers as Bianca Consunji takes photos in a small mining vilage outside of Goma. Photo by IWMF.

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Victims No More: Congo’s Badass Women Mechanics

By Nina Strochlic | June 6, 2014 The following excerpt is reprinted with permission from The Daily Beast.

Girls in the devastated city of Goma, “the rape capital of the world,” are breaking stereotypes to find work—and independence—as car mechanics and carpenters.

In a large auto body shop off a dusty alley in the Democratic Republic of Congo, two teenage girls climb behind a stripped-down truck to take a break under a shady cluster of trees. A few moments before, 16-year-old Kubuya Mushingano, clad in a blue mechanic’s uniform, and 17-year-old Dorcas Lukonge, her hair wrapped in a scarf, were, respectively, wielding a circular saw and power drill.

Each day, these two young trainees saw, drill and weld—making doors and windows for cars at the auto yard, a dirt enclosure littered with scrap wood and metal.

In the eastern provincial capital of Goma, where perceptions of women are shaded by a regional nickname, “The Rape Capital of the World,” a group of girls handy with power tools are throwing a literal wrench into gender norms and stereotypes of victimhood.

“When we came here there were a lot of people discouraging us, saying it’s work for men,” says Mushingano. “But I feel it’s good work and I like it.”

Lukonge chimes in assertively: “When people discourage us we feel more encouraged to go on.”

And good work it is. In much of the DRC, roads are in a woeful state of disrepair, and in Goma, the conditions are especially dire. A patchwork of building shells and cratered streets, the city tells of a cyclical war, still smoldering. It’s never been given the chance to rebuild before the next blitz hits—whether a flood of molten lava or a ferocious insurgency.

Weaving through this are only a handful of properly paved thoroughfares. The rest are a bone-rattling maze of potholes littered with rocks spewed 12 years ago by nearby Mount Nyiragongo, one of the world’s most dangerous volcanoes.

This state of disrepair provides good business for the city’s mechanics. Cars bumping over Goma’s streets need constant attention. A translator working with The Daily Beast said he brings his vehicle into the mechanic every two weeks to fix the suspension.

“When people discourage us we feel more encouraged to go on.”

The girls say the auto body yard, otherwise filled with more than a dozen men of all ages, is a welcoming environment. “When there is work to do we just do it, there is no discrimination, no saying, ‘You can’t do this,’” says Lukonge.

But auto work is not the typical path for Congolese women, who make up half the labor force, but are largely relegated to traditional avenues of employment as seamstresses, cooks, farm labor, or small vendors. In the DRC, women still need their husband’s permission to start a business or open a bank account.

As a mechanic, job prospects are more promising (Lukonge says she feared becoming just “another” tailor), but not everyone understands the draw of a career path typically filled by men, including the girls’ own families. “Some say, ‘You are just going to hunt for men,’” Lukonge says.

Mushingano agrees, “We know that’s not the case, we just come here for work.”

These girls, and others in the vocational programs, represent a more nuanced image of Congolese women than the portrait pervasive in media coverage. The DRC is ubiquitous in the top five slots of annual “The worst places in the world to a be a woman” lists; with a 2011 study finding 48 rapes occur each hour.

There’s no question many women in the DRC are victims of horrific sexual violence and their attackers often enjoy impunity. But there is a whole lot more to these women and their lives than victimhood.

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Young women learn how fix cars at a vocational training center for at-risk youth in Goma. Photo by Nina Strochlic.

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WHILE I CONSIDER MYSELF A SEASONED HAND AT REPORTING IN SUB SAHARAN AFRICA, it’s hard for me to imagine navigating this place for the first time on my own. The IWMF provided me with a unique opportunity to stretch my reporting skills with the safety net of quality fixers and institutional support. I was able to take narrative risks and grow as a journalist. I learned how to navigate bureaucratic institutions. This kind of professional development is rare, and I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to participate. – Elaisha Stokes

Elaisha Stokes takes photos in Kiwanja. Photo by IWMF.

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Maeve Frances is an independent radio reporter and producer based in Istanbul, Turkey. She has spent the past five years living in the Middle East and Asia and enjoys producing sound-rich audio features and documentaries for public radio stations based in Australia, Europe and the United States.

Allyn Gaestel is a freelance journalist who covers inequality and the human repercussions of politics. She is particularly interested in global health and women. She has worked for outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Al Jazeera, The Christian Science Monitor, CNN, Reuters, The Atlantic, and France 24.

Simone Gorrindo is a writer based in Columbus, Georgia. She is currently a Contributing Editor at Vela, an online magazine of creative nonfiction written by women. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Huffington Post, and Tablet, among others.

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Grainne Harrington is a senior reporter at BBC World Television News with extensive experience in multiple mediums and a producer on Focus on Africa TV. She focuses on demobilization efforts and programs and initiatives that support job creation, conflict resolution, and new business initiatives.

Jessica Hatcher is an independent British journalist based in Nairobi, Kenya, working in Africa. She is a regular contributor to TIME Magazine and IRIN News. Other clients include the Guardian, The Telegraph Magazine, The Times, Sunday Times, the Royal African Society and Interfax. Areas of interest include human rights and social issues in conflict and post-conflict situations, and development.

Edith Honan is the East Africa correspondent for Reuters, based in Nairobi, Kenya. Prior to joining Reuters, she covered the United Nations for UPI.

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Jessica Hatcher pauses alongisde one of Virunga’s first female rangers during the long climb up Mount Nyiragongo. Photo by Phil Moore.

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A group of elephants on the side of the road from Rumangabo to Vitshumbi. Photo by Katie Falkenberg.

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Virunga is open, ready for business

By Elaisha Stokes | February 24, 2014 This excerpt is from the first article in a two part series on Virunga National Park written by IWMF reporting fellows. It is reprinted with permission from Al Jazeera America.

Virunga National Park was founded in 1925. It is the continent’s In 2007, the park made international headlines when corrupt park officials oldest national park, and conservationists often refer to it as implicated in the illicit charcoal trade gunned seven mountain gorillas down, Africa’s crown jewel. From its southern tip, the park stretches 300 execution style. The government in Kinshasa was swift to act, arresting those kilometers north, covering 2 million acres of vast terrain — lava lakes, implicated and instating de Merode as director. Conservationist hoped the park tropical rainforests, savannahs and wetlands are all found within its could recover its former glory. borders. There are lions, elephants, hippos and the famed Okapi — a In 2012, National Geographic declared Virunga the premiere destination for those cross between a zebra and a giraffe. But the park’s premiere attraction seeking adventure, but by March of that year two units from the national army remains its mountain gorillas. Virunga is home to about half of the had mutinied, and a new rebel movement known as M23 had taken up arms. world’s remaining population.

These rebels moved into Virunga and it became impossible to trek for gorillas.

The park immediately suspended all tourism.

“There’s a very old tradition of conservation in this part of Congo,” said Emmanuel de Merode, the park’s director. “Many people have parents or grandparents who were involved in this park. And so conservation trumps politics.”

That hasn’t always been the case.

“We’ve struggled to protect the gorillas during times of conflict,” de Merode said.

He has repeatedly negotiated with armed rebel groups to make sure shelling is kept out of the park, often traveling to Kinshasa to facilitate high-level meetings between rebel groups and the Congolese government.

“Initially, there was a lot of suspicion that we were traitors,” de Merode said.

But time and time again, successive rebel leaders have agreed that protecting mountain gorillas is in everyone’s best interest. Gorilla trekking in neighboring Rwanda is estimated to generate $15 million in revenue annually. Money like that could be huge to a region where per capita GDP is among the lowest in the world.

Late last year, M23 declared a truce and laid down its weapons. For those who call the Kivu home, peace finally seems to be on the horizon.

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I NOW UNDERSTAND FAR BETTER WHY THE CONGO HAS BEEN AN OBSESSION FOR SO MANY GREAT WRITERS, given its natural beauty, the warmth and resilience of the people, and its ability to surprise. I leave the Congo sobered by the tragic legacy that decades of civil war and turf battles have bestowed upon its people and wildlife and determined to find a way back. There is no shortage of stories that offer hope for a better future for the Congolese people or greater understanding of a region written off by much of the world. But they require an investment of resources that few media companies are willing or able to invest. The struggle over resources in Virunga and its impact on the endangered mountain gorillas is among them. Thanks to the IWMF reporting fellowship, I was able to tackle a few of those stories while making friends with a great group of talented women journalists. This turned out to be a bucket-list item that I didn’t know I wanted.

– Evelyn Iritani

Sharing a laugh outside Mugunga IDP camp. Photo by Katie Falkenberg.

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Evelyn Iritani is a senior editor at Bending Borders, a global multimedia program that explores common life experiences across cultures and countries. She is also the founder of Dancing Horse Media Shop, a communications company.

Monique Jaques is a photojournalist based in Istanbul, Turkey. She has spent the past four years focused on documenting in the Middle East, as well as Afghanistan and India. Her work has been published by The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune, The Christian Science Monitor, The Economist, GEO, The Guardian, and CNN, among others.

Karen Lowe is the creator of Bending Borders, a multimedia production company that explores how common human experiences – like the first kiss, sibling rivalry and dying – play out across cultures and countries in surprisingly different ways. She also teaches creative audio at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Communications and Journalism.

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Molly McCluskey is an independent journalist covering foreign affairs, finance, and travel for a variety of national and international publications. Her work has appeared in Al Jazeera English, National Geographic, The Washington Post, Washington Diplomat, and many others.

Allison Shelley is an independent documentary photographer and multimedia journalist focused on global health and social justice issues worldwide. She is co-director of the Women Photojournalists of Washington and teaches in the graduate photojournalism program at the Corcoran College of Art and Design. Her work has been featured in publications such as TIME Magazine, The New York Times, The Atlantic, Al Jazeera, NPR, The Washington Post and the Guardian.

April Simpson is a South Florida-based freelance journalist. Her work has appeared in The Boston Globe, The Seattle Times, and Tampa Bay Times. In addition to her freelance work, April travels monthly to Central America and the Caribbean to report on extreme poverty for a global development charity.

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Women package locally made fuel briquettes as part of an initiative sponsored by the World Food Program. Photo by Katie Falkenberg.

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Guerrillas, gorillas and oil: A toxic mix?

By Evelyn Iritani | February 25, 2014 This excerpt is from the second article in a two part series on Virunga National Park written

by IWMF reporting fellows. It is reprinted with permission from Al Jazeera America.

Virunga, which encompasses soaring glacier-topped volcanoes, giant lava lakes and lush tropical forests, is home for some of the world’s rarest wildlife, including the elusive okapi and a quarter of the world’s mountain gorillas. The gorillas make their home in the Virunga Mountains, which straddle the border of the DRC, Rwanda and Uganda.

“The idea of developing tourism is not a pipe dream,” de Merode [the Director of Virunga National Park] said, pointing out that Rwanda now brings in close to half a billion dollars a year in tourism revenue, mostly from gorilla treks. “It’s a major strategic interest for the future of the country.”

That won’t be easy. The 3,000-square-mile park is in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is ground zero of a bitter civil war that has claimed 5 million lives since 1996.

Since the start of the war, more than 130 of the park’s rangers have been killed on duty, most of them by rebels or poachers.

In January a ranger was killed and several others badly injured when they were ambushed during a crackdown on illegal charcoal trading, a $35 million-a-year business.

The M23, one of two dozen armed groups battling for turf in the region, moved into the park in the spring of 2012, forcing the park’s closure. In November the rebels agreed to negotiate a peace agreement with the government, paving the way for the park’s reopening.

Virunga is a bumpy two-hour drive from Goma, the hub of eastern Congo, and park rangers stationed at strategic points along the dirt road, toting AK-47s and two-way radios, greet visitors to the newly reopened park.

“This is low-volume tourism, so we can put a lot of effort into looking after people,” said de Merode. “We put safety above all else.”

He is pushing the Congolese government to pursue a full strategic environmental assessment before allowing oil exploration to move forward in the park. But he knows that in the “arms race for the most jobs and the best-quality jobs,” it is up to him to prove that the Virunga Alliance offers the Congolese people a better future.

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Andre Bauma, Chief Caretaker at the Senkwekwe Gorilla Orphanage in Virunga National Park, pals around with Viruga’s 3 orphaned gorillas, Matabishi, Ndeze, and Ndakasi.

Photo by Katie Falkenberg.

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[CONGO] FELT NOTHING LIKE THE COUNTRY I HAD HEARD ABOUT SO MUCH IN THE PAST. Not in books, not in news reports about war and genocide and conflict mineral mining. The country I encountered still suffered from decades of war and poverty, but being there for over a week was already enough time for me to see the gaps in the universally accepted narrative about the DR Congo...

I enjoyed myself immensely the entire time I was in the DR Congo. I loved driving up the mountains and counting the cows that dotted the grassy slopes, interviewing locals about their lives, and bringing out my camera to take photos of the pastoral countryside.

I enjoyed the rush of clambering down the mines and felt strangely powerful each time I wrapped up a shoot. I’m extremely grateful for the IWMF’s initiative to encourage women to report on difficult issues, but I’m also mildly upset that the program has to exist in the first place. How many women are unable to do conflict reporting because their editors would rather send a man on the field as not to put the women in “unnecessary danger?” I don’t know.

– Bianca Consunji

Miners working outside the village of Numbi. Photo by Bianca Consunji.

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Julia Steers is the director of social media at CBS News, overseeing social media strategy and driving the news division’s social media-based newsgathering efforts. She is the former editor in chief of the Webby-award winning Dosomething.org web site, where she wrote and edited social justice and international human rights-focused content.

Elaisha Stokes is a freelance journalist and documentary filmmaker based in Brooklyn. Her films have aired nationally and her freelance journalism appears regularly in the New York Times and Monocle Magazine.

Nina Strochlic is a reporter for The Daily Beast in New York City, covering breaking news, travel, women’s issues, and global development.

She has been published in Newsweek, Marie Claire, and National Geographic Traveler and will be contributing to an upcoming National Geographic book.

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Nastasya Tay is an independent broadcast journalist, writer and multimedia producer based between Southern and East Africa, specializing in issues affecting Africa, the environment, health, and development. Her work has appeared in publications including The Guardian, The Sydney Morning Herald, Marie Claire magazine, The Economist, The Independent, The Washington Post, and every major South African newspaper.

Nicole Tung is a freelance journalist and photojournalist. She has been published in The New York Times, Vanity Fair, Doctors Without Borders, TIME Magazine, and others. She has also contributed images to Human Rights Watch, Paris Match, Die Zeit, and other publications.

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Nicole Tung takes shelter from the rain while working on a story in Masisi territory. Photo by Julia Steers.

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Washing up in Goma. Photo by Katie Falkenberg.

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Goma back on the map as violence gives way to construction and croissants Public and private investment have created fresh hope in a Congolese city more often associated with conflict and upheaval.

By Jessica Hatcher | October 24, 2014 This excerpt is from an article originally published in The Guardian and has been reproduced with The Guardian’s consent.

Vanessa Jados, 27, had croissant cravings while pregnant with “They even have hummus like in Israel,” marvels Bernard Kalume Buleri, a her first child – but the nearest decent croissant was a three-and- Congolese musician who once played in Tel Aviv. a-half-hour drive away, across the border in Rwanda. Today, the Twenty years ago, the Rwandan genocide transformed Goma from an idyllic businesswoman from Goma, in the Democratic Republic of the lakeside resort town into the nucleus of a humanitarian crisis when refugees Congo, is proud to produce what she thinks is the perfect croissant. fled into Congo and humanitarian aid workers followed. In the late 90s, a rebel Her business, Au Bon Pain, is the first boutique boulangerie in Goma, movement, RCD-Goma, sprang up, and went on to control the town. and one of a number of establishments to open in the past year.

In 2002, a quarter of Goma was submerged by molten lava from Mount Nyiragongo. As the volcano continued to belch smoke above the town, people dusted off the ashes and rebuilt the North Kivu capital.

“When you hear about Goma, it’s always to do with the war, the volcano – you hear nothing good. But there are a lot of good things here,” Jados says.

But in 2012, another armed rebel group, M23, seized control. While Goma did not experience the worst of the fighting, the M23 movement diverted government funds away from the provision of basic services and shattered hopes of a lasting peace. Now, a year after the demise of M23, new businesses have opened up. And, with two years until the next elections, the provincial government is cleaning up the city’s battle-scarred streets.

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Past Reporting Fellowships Future Reporting Fellowships

The Next Chapter: Expanding IWMF Reporting Programs in Africa’s Great Lakes Region The IWMF is proud to provide unique opportunities to women journalists to work in underreported regions and to offer vital security training to help them stay safe in the field. With generous support from the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, we will expand our reporting initiatives in Africa’s Great Lakes Region.

Beginning in 2015, in addition to continuing our work in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the IWMF will lead groups of women journalists to the Central African Republic, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. We will explore stories about conservation and conflict, agriculture and food security, democracy and governance, and of course, stories of hope. Over the next four years, we will bring more than 350 international journalists to the region to reshape the media narrative about Africa for years to come.

The IWMF will also scale up our journalism security training and launch Reporta, the IWMF’s new mobile security app, benefiting both international reporters and hundreds of local journalists in the countries where we will be working. We’ll organize local year-long journalism fellowships focused on building investigative reporting skills and leadership training. And, we will build a network of journalists around the world who care about producing outstanding news coverage in and about Africa.

This is an exciting new chapter in the IWMF’s 25-year history. We invite you to join us as we continue to amplify women’s voices around the world.

28 IWMF | THE OTHER SIDE OF THE STORY: A YEAR OF REPORTING FROM EASTERN CONGO

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Morning on Mount Nyiragongo. Photo by Monique Jaques.

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With thanks to: The Howard G. Buffett Foundation for making our reporting program in Eastern Congo and upcoming expansion possible.

Thank you to all of the IWMF Reporting Fellows who have participated in our trips. It has been a privilege to work with such talented, ambitious and accomplished journalists.

Global Journalist Security has been the IWMF’s trusted partner, providing crucial hostile environments and emergency first aid training to our reporting fellows. Thank you to trainers Frank Smyth and Paul Burton for taking their one-of-a-kind show on the road and working with our groups in Kampala, Uganda, and Nairobi, Kenya.

Virunga National Park warden Emmanuel de Merode and his entire team granted us unparalleled access to report from the park. Thank you for facilitating our exploration of this incredible place.

Severine Autesserre, Jina Moore and Emily Paddon presented expert briefings on the complexities of reporting from Eastern Congo. Thank you for your valuable insights.

Without the IWMF’s phenomenal team of fixers, the journalists who participated in our reporting trips could not have gotten their stories. From helping us to secure interviews with everyone from the Prime Minister to farmers in rural villages, to navigating bureaucratic intricacies, our fixers made everything run smoothly. Special thanks to Caleb Kabanda, our lead fixer, for his unwavering dedication to helping the IWMF accomplish its program goals. We are grateful to Horeb Bulambo Shindano, Christian Kilundu, Marc Baharanyi, Freddy Ajili and Sylvain Muyali for their commitment to ensuring our teams’ success.

Thanks are also in order to our intrepid drivers, who safely got us through many tight spots.

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Investing In Women In The Media Worldwide Founded in 1990 by a group of prominent U.S. women journalists, the IWMF is a Washington-based organization that is dedicated to strengthening the role of women journalists worldwide. The IWMF believes the news media worldwide are not truly free and representative without the equal voice of women. The IWMF celebrates the courage of women journalists who overcome threats and oppression to speak out on global issues.

The IWMF’s programs empower women journalists with the training, support and network to become leaders in the news industry.

The IWMF’s Board of Directors and supporters include leading journalists and media executives from around the world.

For more information about our programs and to support the IWMF please contact us at info@iwmf.org or visit our website at www.iwmf.org.

IWMF BOARD OF DIRECTORS Linda Mason, Co-Chair

Parisa Khosravi, CNN Worldwide

Cynthia McFadden, Co-Chair, NBC News

Cindi Leive, Glamour Magazine

Alexandra Trower, Vice-Chair, The Estée Lauder Companies Inc.

Bryan Monroe

Eric Harris, Treasurer, BuzzFeed

Norah O’Donnell, CBS

Christiane Amanpour, ABC News/CNN

Eugene Robinson, The Washington Post

Debra Adams Simmons, Advance Local

Maria Elena Salinas, Univision Network

Nadia Bilbassy-Charters, Al Arabiya TV

George Stephanopoulos, ABC News

Theodore J. Boutrous Jr, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP

Sharon Waxman, TheWrap News Inc.

Barbara Cochran, University of Missouri

Matt Winkler, Bloomberg News

Ann Curry, NBC News

George A. Lehner, Legal Counsel, Pepper Hamilton LLP

Katty Kay, BBC World News America

Elisa Lees Muñoz, Executive Director

Taking photos from a traffic stand in the middle of a busy intersection in Goma. Photo by Nastasya Tay.

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The Howard G. Buffett Foundation is a private family foundation working to improve the standard of living and quality of life for the world’s most impoverished and marginalized populations. We focus our funding on filling critical gaps to catalyze transformational change in four main areas: 1) food security; 2) water security; 3) conflict mitigation; and 4) public safety. The Foundation has worked to foster peace and development in Africa’s Great Lakes region since 1999, investing and committing nearly $200 million to promote conservation; peace and stability; demobilization and economic development; democracy and governance; regional economic integration; and advocate for the region.

32 IWMF | THE OTHER SIDE OF THE STORY: A YEAR OF REPORTING FROM EASTERN CONGO

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Pulling in the day’s catch on the shores of Lake Edward. Photo by IWMF.

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1625 K STREET NW, SUITE 1275, WASHINGTON, DC 20006, USA

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