Announcing the 2025 Cohort for Brazil Reporting Institute on Early Childhood

The Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma announced the cohort for its next Reporting Institute on Early Childhood to be held 27-29 June, 2025 in Rio de Janeiro. The three-day seminar will bring together 22 journalists from top news organizations across Brazil and provide them with grants to undertake crucial and timely stories.

The seminar will include expert briefings, panels and journalist-to-journalist conversations and explore topics like the neuroscience of early brain development, climate and technology policies and impacts and social and racial inequality and its effects on children.

“Early childhood development is receiving more and more attention in the news. With this institute and grant opportunity, we aim to increase and enhance coverage of the critical topics of climate change and inequality through the lens of children ages 0-6,” said Bruce Shapiro, Executive Director of the Dart Center at the Columbia Journalism School. 

In Brazil, social and racial disparities are deeply entrenched, and young children in marginalized communities are disproportionately affected by environmental degradation, digital exclusion and systemic inequalities. As Brazil prepares to host world leaders in the UN Climate Change Conference in Belém in November 2025, this program aims to put early childhood development at the top of the news agenda.

“The climate crisis disproportionately affects children in their early years. Therefore, it is urgent to integrate the climate agenda into public policies aimed at children through a systemic, cross-sectoral and cross-governmental approach. Engaging with journalists on this issue and broadening their perspective on all matters affecting early childhood is a strategic way to encourage societal engagement and accelerate the adoption of sustainable and equitable solutions from birth,” said Mariana Luz, CEO of Fundação Maria Cecilia Souto Vidigal, an institute supporter. 

The institute is part of the Dart Center's Early Childhood Journalism Initiative, launched in 2017 to encourage science-focused, child-centered reporting that examines caregivers' mental health and well-being. Supported by the Van Leer Foundation (Netherlands), Maria Cecília Souto Vidigal Foundation (Brazil) and The Two Lilies Fund (United States), the initiative has already trained and supported more than 325 journalists from over 50 countries.

Below are brief biographies of the 22 selected journalists, along with the profiles of the seminar leaders.

Amanda Polato is a journalist with a degree from ECA-USP, with 16 years of experience and stints at media outlets, such as Nova Escola, R7 and Época. She has worked at G1 since 2014, currently serving as a producer and scriptwriter for the podcast O Assunto. She plans to investigate the psychological effects of natural disasters on young children. Her reporting aims to understand how extreme climate events impact child development, mental health and school life through interviews with families, educators, and experts in Rio Grande do Sul, especially in the Vale do Taquari region.

Amanda Luder is a producer and reporter at GloboNews since 2019. She covers hard news topics, focusing on health, public safety, human rights and politics. She has also worked as a podcast producer at Folha de S. Paulo. Her television report, in VT format, will show how the daily lives of children who spend all day on the streets selling small items to help support their families, affect their health and education. The report will also explore how climate change in a city like São Paulo impacts these children, who spend their entire day exposed to vehicles and pollution.

Amanda Veríssimo da Silva is a journalist at Jornal da Universidade, with a degree from UERN. She is also a Ph.D. candidate in Communication at UFRGS. A Northeastern Brazilian, born in the interior of Rio Grande do Norte, she currently resides in Porto Alegre. She has been researching antiracist journalism for five years, resulting in the creation of the Guide for Antiracist Journalism, later transformed into a short course. She worked at UERN’s Extension Office, where she co-created and produced the magazine As Cores da Extensão, which received institutional recognition. For two years, she worked at the State Comptroller's Office of RN, producing content on citizenship, transparency and social participation. She develops reports on politics, technology, the environment and science. Her project for the seminar investigates the effects of the 2024 floods in Rio Grande do Sul on quilombola children aged 0 to 6.

Ariane Veiga is a journalist with seven years of experience, holding a degree in Social Communication from the University of Cuiabá (UNIC) and certificates from the University of São Paulo (USP) in topics such as Organized Crime in the Americas and Structural Racism in Policing. Her career focuses on investigative journalism, with stints at major outlets such as TV Globo and Record TV. She has specialized in socio-environmental reporting, covering crises in the Pantanal, Amazon and Indigenous territories, with an emphasis on climate change, deforestation and human rights violations. Her reporting project will show how children from Brazil's peripheral communities face more severe heatwaves than those from affluent neighborhoods and will expose the health impacts already observed.

Bruno Alfano holds a master’s degree in Education. He has been covering the field for ten years for Grupo Globo, reporting for Extra and O Globo. His reporting focuses on childhood and adolescence, the Ministry of Education and education policies in Brazil. His project: children up to 2 years old are connected to the internet in 44% of Brazilian households, according to data from Cetic.br, in a context of record levels of anxiety and depression in childhood. His investigation will explore the use and impact of technology on early childhood.

Carolina de Almeida carries a decade of experience dedicated to a humanized approach in communication, especially focused on early childhood. She began her career at Brazil’s largest pediatric hospital, Pequeno Príncipe. She currently works as a freelance reporter for Portal Lunetas. Her journalism degree from UFPR is complemented by specializations in Multicultural Education (Berkeley) and Storytelling for Social Justice (UCLA), reflecting her ongoing commitment to impactful narratives. Inspired by her recent participation in a course on COP30 coverage, Carolina proposes a report focused on the experience of the "Guardiãs do Cacau" in Pará, a group of mothers fighting for ancestral cacao production as a food security strategy for their children. The project will focus on these mothers who live in a region rich in natural resources yet are often forced to rely on ultra-processed foods due to economic constraints.

Caroline Pires is a journalist and screenwriter. She holds a master's degree in Latin American Politics from Columbia University in New York and is a co-founder of the podcast production company Zarabatana Studios. She is the author of the podcast Retrato Narrado and co-writer of the documentary film The Edge of Democracy (Netflix), which was nominated for the 2020 Oscar for Best Documentary. As a screenwriter, she has worked on the documentary A Vítima Invisível – O Caso Eliza Samúdio (Netflix), the series Extremistas.BR (Globoplay) and the comedy news program GregNews – with Gregorio Duvivier, aired for seven years on HBO Max. She is also the author of the documentary El Maldito Darién, about migration in Latin America. As a journalist, she was a reporter for Revista Piauí and a regular contributor to The New York Times en Español. Her work has also been published by various international outlets, such as The New Yorker (USA), Reportagen Magazin (Switzerland) and Internazionale (Italy).

Díjna Andrade Torres is a journalist with a degree from the Federal University of Sergipe, a master's degree in Sociology from the same institution and a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the Federal University of Santa Catarina. She carries over 10 years of experience, producing investigative reports for outlets such as Mangue Jornalismo, Agência Pública, Revista Afirmativa and O Joio e o Trigo. She also produced and hosted the podcast Por Trás da Mídia, addressing topics related to human rights, the environment, gender and race. She has collaborated with artists from fields such as music, visual arts, photography, fashion, popular culture, audiovisual as well as socio-environmental initiatives. Her proposed investigation focuses on Indigenous children in Sergipe and how play within villages serves as a counter-colonial method of preserving childhood. The project aims to highlight ancestral approaches to communal and networked care, emphasizing their positive pedagogical influences. She will explore how these collective care processes might be reclaimed in a society marked by excessive screen time, early diagnoses of disorders and weakened support networks in an individualistic family model.

Giovana Girardi is the head of socio-environmental coverage at Agência Pública and one of the hosts of the weekly videocast Bom Dia, Fim do Mundo. She is also responsible for the podcast Tempo Quente (Rádio Novelo) and has worked for outlets such as Estadão, Folha de S.Paulo, Scientific American and Galileu. She was a Knight Science Journalism fellow at MIT. Her project is to report on stories of children born amidst extreme events, such as floods in Rio Grande do Sul and droughts and wildfires in the Amazon.

Gustavo Dutra Rodrigues is a graduate of the University of the Amazon in Social Communication. He has worked in journalism since 2008, engaging in research, press relations, independent journalism, newsroom roles and book writing Currently, he is a freelancer and senior editor at Portal DOL, coordinating coverage of COP events. He has extensive experience in political, cultural and environmental reporting and has been awarded for his work in the field of human rights. His proposed project is a report on the challenges faced by children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the Amazon context and the initiatives aimed at supporting this population.

Helena Krüger Barreto is a journalist with 11 years of experience at RPC, Globo’s affiliate in Paraná. She began her career in Guarapuava as a producer and editor, focusing on daily reporting and social issues. Since 2017, she has worked in Curitiba’s newsroom and, in recent years, has been part of Globo’s National Network Unit, producing and editing nationally broadcast reports. Throughout her career, she has developed special reporting projects on environmental journalism and human rights — including a series published in March this year about land conflicts in Indigenous territories in Paraná. Her project aims to map the implementation of public policies for migrant children, especially Venezuelans, in Curitiba and the metropolitan region — the Brazilian city that has received the most migrants through the federal “Acolhida” program. Many live in precarious occupations and areas at risk from climate change. Her proposal is to investigate these children's access to education and healthcare, as well as the support provided by protection agencies.

Isabela do Carmo is a journalist with a degree from Universidade Anhembi Morumbi (UAM) and a postgraduate student in Human Rights and Social Struggles at the Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP). She currently works as a correspondent in the Heliópolis favela for Agência Mural de Jornalismo nas Periferias, focusing on human rights, citizenship and cultural stories. She has previously worked on the editorial team of Pequenas Empresas & Grandes Negócios magazine (PEGN), part of Editora Globo, and in the communications departments of Instituto Pólis and Instituto Moreira Salles. Her project investigates the impacts of unplanned urbanization, lack of basic infrastructure and absence of green areas on the health and development of children aged 0 to 6 in Heliópolis. In precarious, cramped, poorly ventilated and humid housing, common in alleys and narrow streets, respiratory problems and other conditions become frequent and often go unnoticed. The scarcity of outdoor spaces, such as parks and green areas, reinforces environmental racism, intersecting with social inequality and directly affecting public health and access to education from early childhood.

Lara Machado is a journalism undergraduate student at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), with experience at Revista Piauí, O Globo and AFP. She focuses on structural topics, such as the climate crisis, social inequality and human rights. For the fellowship, she intends to investigate how children aged 0 to 6 experience the combined effects of environmental crises, wildfires and territorial exclusion in the city of Corumbá (MS), considered the capital of the Pantanal. Her report aims to portray the reality of childhoods growing disconnected from their biome and vulnerable to extreme heat and pollution, reflecting on how these experiences impact child development.

Luana Lisboa is a journalist with a degree from the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA). She works in the Equilíbrio, Saúde and Todas sections at Folha de S.Paulo, covering public health, human rights and gender issues. Born in Maceió (AL) and raised in Salvador (BA), she was a science and health trainee at the newspaper and a reporter for Revista Consultor Jurídico and Jornal Correio 24 Horas. She has written about legal matters, public policies, access to abortion, early childhood and inequalities. With the fellowship, she plans to develop a project on the impact of climate change in the Amazon — the state most affected by drought in 2024 — on the health and development of children aged 0 to 6.

Mayara Silva das Neves Teixeira is a Brazilian journalist and documentarian specializing in human rights coverage. She has worked for 11 years on the program Profissão Repórter at Rede Globo. She received a full scholarship to specialize in documentaries at the Columbia Journalism School in New York, where she graduated in August 2023. Her debut film, After Landing, was selected among projects supported by the Pulitzer Center’s “Reporting Fellowships” and was nominated for the competitive shorts category at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival. Her project: High school dropout rates, low vaccination coverage, elevated child mortality and precarious access to clean water and sanitation make the Amazon the worst place in Brazil to be a child. In Melgaço, Pará — the municipality with the country's lowest HDI, which recorded 228 days of extreme heat in 2024 — the climate crisis further exacerbates this reality. Her proposal is to conduct an immersive report in this city, where school meals often fail to arrive, children endure long boat trips to school and hunger is a daily challenge. The narrative will be guided by their perspectives, through letters and drawings expressing their feelings about climate change. The report will follow the symbolic journey of these voices — from Melgaço to Belém, where the letters will be delivered to authorities during COP30 — revealing the inequalities faced by those who contribute least to climate change but suffer its consequences the most.

Paula Vieira Felix Rodrigues has been working as a health journalist since 2014, currently working at VEJA magazine. She graduated from the Federal University of Alagoas (UFAL) and has previously worked at Agora São Paulo and O Estado de S.Paulo. For the program, she plans to delve into the topic of childhood grief, its impacts and solutions to mitigate it in times of climate disasters and the spread of infectious diseases.

Rita Lisauskas is a content manager at Estadão, host of Opinião on TV Cultura and Mãe sem Manual on Rádio Eldorado. Her project will be a series of reports discussing the impact of cell phones and electronic games on children in vulnerable situations. This compulsive dependence on mobile phones already has a name: nomophobia. Its negative effects on children’s mental and physical health are increasingly recognized and addressed. The investigation will also examine gaming addiction. The goal is to give a face and voice to these stories — naturally protecting the identity of the children involved — to show that this problem can arise in any family, defying common assumptions. She also intends to make a race and class cut, as low-income families often rely on screens as "electronic babysitters" due to the lack of support networks and leisure and care options.

Semayat Oliveira is a journalist and carries a degree in Culture, Education, and Ethnic-Racial Relations from the School of Communication and Arts at USP. She is a co-founder of Nós, Mulheres da Periferia, a journalistic collective, and has been a journalistic consultant for the podcast Mano a Mano, led by rapper Mano Brown, since 2021. In strategic communication, she coordinated communications at the Vladimir Herzog Institute between 2018 and 2019. Currently, she is an editor at Geledés Portal. Her project: Early childhood is on the verge of collapse. The proposal is to portray this downfall through three naturally interconnected topics. The first is the "plasticization" of life: plastic toys, synthetic grass in daycare centers, ultra-processed food consumption and the absence of greenery, especially in peripheral and impoverished regions. This context intensifies another contemporary challenge: anxiety among children and caregivers. Brazilians' mental health has proven vulnerable. Adding the lack of adequate leisure spaces and the overload placed on women, the result tends toward an unfavorable imbalance for early childhood. Finally, the increase in respiratory syndromes among infants, already confirmed by Fiocruz, has been filling ICUs and hospital beds, especially in autumn. This cycle, woven by climate change and Brazilian inequalities, will be the focus of the audio report, structured in three different episodes.

Tácita Muniz Azevedo graduated from the Federal University of Acre (UFAC) in Social Communication/Journalism. She has worked in communications for 15 years, spending over 10 years as editor of G1 in Acre. She has worked for newspapers such as O Rio Branco and Página 20.net, with reports published in the Ecoa project and Mongabay. She is currently a reporter at the Acre News Agency, part of the State Secretariat of Communication. Her proposal is to produce a report on the impact of climate change on children's health, especially during the so-called Amazonian summer, when, in addition to suffering from high temperatures, the population also contends with elevated air pollution levels, increasing health problems and hospitalizations.

Tatiana Bertoni Celestino Ferreira is a journalist with 25 years of experience in radio, TV and print media. She is a producer and reporter at TV Cultura. She has worked for outlets such as Rádio CBN and SBT, covering various editorial areas and programs. She has extensive experience producing reports and content focused on education, culture and social issues. She works as a freelance content producer for podcasts and special projects. Her proposed project is “Gray Sky: how climate anxiety affects Brazilian children,” investigating the emotional impacts of the climate emergency on children, especially in vulnerable contexts, from the perspectives of mental health professionals, educators and families.

Thais Bilenky is journalist with a degree from USP. She is a columnist at UOL and host of the podcasts A Hora and Lira, os atalhos do poder. At Folha de S. Paulo, she worked as a correspondent in New York and as a reporter in Brasília and São Paulo. At Revista Piauí, she hosted the podcasts Foro de Teresina and Alexandre. Her project: an investigation into how screen-related harms disproportionately affect low-income children, compounding pre-existing layers of restrictions such as poor nutrition, under-resourced schools, exposure to violence and racism. Online games and YouTube have become "babysitters" for children of low-income mothers who have no one to look after their children and resort to giving them a phone for company while they are alone.

Vinicius Martins​ is a journalist with a degree from São Paulo State University (Unesp). He is co-founder, partner and multimedia director of Alma Preta Jornalismo. Previously, he was a video journalist at Folha de S. Paulo and multimedia manager at the Vladimir Herzog Institute. He intends to develop a report telling the stories of young children who came to Brazil as refugees and now live in São Paulo. The project will seek statistical data and compelling personal narratives (children and their families) to understand the challenges and opportunities for these individuals, especially those who come from African countries or the African diaspora.