Child laborers are seen as they are working for very low wages in the polluted hazardous areas of Chattogram's waste dumping in Halishahar Chattogram, Bangladesh. The children collect recyclable materials from these rubbish heaps throughout the day and deposit them in scrap shops. (Photo by Muhammad Amdad Hossain/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
In 2017 the Dart Center launched the Early Childhood Journalism Initiative (ECJI) to increase and strengthen reporting on the youngest children and their caregivers. Through workshops, webinars, reporting fellowships, networking, and other knowledge development opportunities, this multi-year initiative is providing journalists around the world with knowledge, skills, financial support, and other resources to expand and deepen news coverage of early childhood development and its intersection with inequality, education, public health, child care, and social and economic policy around the world.
ECJI brings journalists together from all over the globe. To date, we have hosted journalists from over 50 countries.
The initiative has organized in-person, multi-day workshops in the U.S. and internationally along with reporting fellowships which have supported nearly 300 journalists from over 50 countries, and fostered relationships between international experts, practitioners, and journalists across the globe.
This reportage, published in Indomita, looks at initiatives in Ecuador that support fathers in having a more active parenting role. This piece won Ecuador’s top journalistic prize, the Eugenio Espejo, for the best reportage in online media in 2023.
-- Malte Werner, 2021 Fellow, Germany and José García Escobar, 2021 Fellow, Guatemala
This report, published in The New Humanitarian, looks into how the combined effects of a changing climate, the pandemic and government spending cuts have stunted the growth and development of children in rural communities across Guatemala.
This story, published by The World, highlights a new emotional education curriculum being used in Boston’s Chinatown Pre-Ks to address the growing need to teach preschoolers how to manage their pandemic-related feelings.
This report, published in The Hechinger Report,sheds light on the wide racial gap in access and quality to early intervention services provided by state governments.
Be human first. Do as much pre-reporting as possible. Find out what questions the child has been asking. When possible, immerse. Make them comfortable. Leave them in a good place. Verify what they’ve told you. And don’t underestimate them.
The Guide for Reporting on Early Childhood offers theoretical knowledge and practical tools for journalists to improve their understanding of the youngest children and to change the way they approach covering them. It grows out of the Dart Center’s Early Childhood Journalism Initiative, a multi-year program to deepen understanding of the developing brain and promote ethical and informed reporting on the youngest children.
Full video "Trauma-Informed Interviewing of Children and Caregivers" from the Dart Center's "Global EarlyChildhood Reporting Institute"; March 9, 2024.
FOR A FULL LIST OF RESOURCES AND PAST TRAINING VIDEOS, SEE HERE
