Dhaka (12 September) - FInalists Sophie Elmhirst and Jenny Holden find themselves visiting an MSI project in Bangledesh, and MSI projects in Ghana and Ethiopia, respectively, in the final stages of an exciting journalism competition which began earlier this year.
Sophie and Jenny are two of the journalists who submitted articles on key development issues for this innovative competition organised by Marie Stopes International (MSI) in partnership with the Guardian, the Department for International Development (DFID), and other non government organisations (NGOs).
Out of the thousands of entries received, 40 semi-finalists were initially selected from both the amateur and professional journalist categories. The final selection comprises 16 finalists, from which two overall winners will be chosen.
The last stage of the competition requires each finalist to write on a given theme, in an allocated country. The finalists have the opportunity to visit projects in their assigned country – in Africa or Asia - accompanied by a representative from one of the eight NGOs which International HIV/Aids Alliance and WaterAid.
Jenny Holden, a finalist in the amateur category is visiting projects in Ethiopia (Addis Ababa) and Ghana (Accra) to look at the issue of unsafe abortion and moves on the African continent towards liberalising laws governing access to safer services.
MSI have established nearly twenty clinics in Ethiopia, providing a full range of sexual and reproductive health services. In fact, 90% of all Ethiopians who have had an abortion at an MSI clinic leave with a family planning method.
MSI Ghana is a relatively new project, but is already making a real difference, with three clinics and outreach services. There are plans to rapidly extend this network throughout the country. In both Ethiopia and Ghana, MSI have enrolled healthcare providers in its social franchising programme, to significantly improve access to quality sexual and reproductive health services through existing private providers.
Professional journalist, Sophie Elmhirst, is visiting projects working with the urban poor in Bangladesh (Dhaka) and India (Mumbai).
MSI Bangladesh is the largest programme in the MSI global partnership with multiple outreach sites and mobile services covering over a third of the country. MSI have ambitious plans to increase that number and have recently opened a premium clinic offering maternity/obstretic services.
One of the leading reproductive health providers in Nepal, Sunaulo Parivar Nepal, has carried out 44% of all sterilisations and 70% of all abortions. MSI plans to extend the number of clinics offering a full range of sexual and reproductive health services. There will be 60 by the end of the year!
MSI Senior Communications Manager, Tony Kerridge, says: “Through this competition we hope to encourage a new generation of journalists’ interest in writing about development issues, and through their efforts to engage with the wider public. Visiting programmes in the field and seeing first hand the hard work being done to alleviate poverty, enrich lives and meet the Millennium Development Goals.”
All 16 finalists will have their feature articles published in the Guardian, after the winners have been announced at a gala event in London, in November.
To view all the finalists, please see:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/journalismcompetition/finalists
To read Guardian Editor, Sue George's blog on the competition, please
click here