IWMF fellows head to Colombia and Mexico-U.S. border as part of Adelante initiative

• By Teresa Mioli
• February 19, 2016

The first group of fellows for the Adelante initiative from the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) have been selected and are preparing for trips to Colombia and the Mexico-U.S. border.

As part of the two-week long trips, six journalists will go to the Mexico-U.S. border to report on economic development and the human impact of migration. Another group of six journalists will cover rural and economic development in Colombia.

Mexico – U.S. Border Fellows

• Kimberly Adams (Marketplace; Washington D.C., United States)
• Whitney Eulich (Christian Science Monitor; Mexico City, Mexico)
• Jika González (freelance video and photojournalist; New York City, New York)
• Sara Mojtehedzadeh (Toronto Star; Toronto, Canada)
• Natalí Faxas (El Caribe; Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic)
• Natalie Keyssar (documentary photographer; Brooklyn, United States)

Colombia Fellows

• Andalusia Knoll (freelance multimedia journalist; Mexico City, Mexico)
• Juanita Ceballos (freelance video and photojournalist; New York City, United States)
• Raquel Godos (EFE; Washington D.C., United States)
• Megan Alpert (Foreign Policy; Washington D.C., United States)
• Débora Silva (freelance video and photojournalist; Oakland, United States)
• Jean Friedman-Rudovsky (freelance print journalist; Philadelphia, United States)

As part of the initiative, the organization is offering reporting trips, year-long fellowships and security training for journalists. In addition to Colombia and Mexico, the initiative covers El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

When the initiative opened applications in late 2015, IWMF announced a plan to train 270 journalists over the next five years. The organization said it would offer 30 international reporting fellowship trips around the region to women journalists and 90 year-long fellowships to women and men journalists in countries covered by the initiative. Hostile Environment and Emergency First Aid Training (HEFAT) will also be offered to journalists in the region.

IWMF is a watchdog for press freedom, provides leadership and security training and funds and coaches women journalists in digital news entrepreneurship.

Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.