Early Childhood Journalism Initiative: Work We Have Supported

 

 

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, and networking 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 and its intersection with issues such as inequality, education, health, child care, and social and economic policy around the world.

Since 2017 the initiative has organized four virtual fellowship programs that have provided reporting grants to 75 journalists from 25 countries, and fostered relationships between international experts and journalists across the globe. Below are links to some of the pieces supported by the fellowship programme. 

Families

Rhitu Chatterjee 

NPR: "Nearly 8 million kids lost a parent or primary caregiver to the pandemic"

Mariana Zúñiga

El Hilo: "Los niños perdidos de Venezuela"

Ana Raquel Lelles

Estado de Minas: "'Antes da Hora': portrait of teenage pregnancy in Brazil"

Estado de Minas: "Técnica indiana reconecta mães e filhos e evita evasão escolar"

Estado de Minas: "'Antes da Hora': projeto evita evasão escolar de mães adolescentes"

Mariana Queiroz

Globo: “Estudo mostra violência major contra mulheres com filhos” 

Vanessa Vieira 

Correio do Lavrado: “Pandemia agrava vulnerabilidades de famílias venezuelanas e expõe violações a direitos sociais

Fabiana Cambricoli

Estadão: "Cinco anos depois, como estao as criancas com microcefalia?"

Oana Sandu

Worldcrunch: "Bystander Victims: Facing The Trauma Of Children Who Witness Domestic Violence" (Read the original version in Romanian here)

Worldcrunch: "After a femicide, what happens to the children?" (Read the original version in Romanian here)

Radio Romania Cultural: "Science 360" (Episode Three)

 

Paula Casas Mogollón

El Espectador: "Huerfanos por feminicidio: las victimas olvidadas"

El Espectador: "La deuda de Colombia con los huérfanos por feminicidios"

 

Migration

Nicolò Filippo Rosso

Washington Post: “How mass migration and its ripple effects are upending lives across Latin America: A story in photographs.

Evandro Almeida Jr.

Distintas Latitudes: “Niños Warao en Brasil: migrar y arraigarse

Distintas Latitudes:“Ninos Warao en Brasil” 

Lorena Rios Trevino

The San Diego Union-Tribune: "Migrant children arriving in Mexico are encountering a school system that is not ready"
 

Brain Development

Jackie Mader

The New Republic: “Is the Pandemic Rewiring Kids’ Brains?

Carla Bittencourt and Mariana Della Barba

Correio: “Desafio em dobro: como a pandemia afetou a vida de crianças atípicas; leia especial

Juliana Causin

My News: “Geracao Covid - o impacto da pandemia na primeira infincia

Conversa de Portão: “Marcas da pandemia  na primeira infincia

Anna Virginia Ballousier

Folha di Sao Paolo: "Nascidos no dia 1 da pandemia completam mil dias; entenda impacto na primeira infância"

Aline Rodrigues 

Periferia em Movimento: “Crianças atípicas: Rede de apoio é decisiva para superar os desafios do desenvolvimento

 
Education and Children

Amanda Rainheri

JC: “Sem aula e sem comida: falta de merenda castigou quase metade dos alunos de escolas públicas brasileiras

Nikolia Apostolou

The First 1,000 Days: In Greece, Migrant Children have the Right to go to School

Anna Claire Vollers

AL.com: “With half of day cares still closed, Alabama to spend millions to help more reopen

Sharon Barang’a

TV47: “The Forgotten Future: How Vital ECDE Pupils Were Neglected During the Pandemic

Carla Bittencourt

Correio: "A ideia deste especial é: se as crianças pudessem ser consultoras dos candidatos e candidatas à presidência da República, que Brasil queriam ter?"

Correio: "Politics is for kids"

Gabriella Jozwiak 
 

The Telegraph: "Metal bars, heavy sandbags and air raid shelters - the battle to reopen schools in Ukraine"

The Telegraph: "Joy and trauma meet as Ukraine's children return to classrooms"

Devex: "In Ukraine, children and parents are battling trauma; help is elusive"

Nursery World: "Exclusive: Live report from Ukraine - War and peace"

The Telegraph: "Inside liberated Kherson & the war's impact on Ukraine's children"

Equal Times: "What impact has the war had on Ukraine’s child-focused workers?"

Jesús Mesa and María Monica Monsalve

El Espectador: "Invisibles: la infancia en Colombia durante la pandemia"

Ana Carolina Moreno

Globo: "Com a suspensão das aulas presenciais, ensino infantil teve queda de matrículas 4x maior que a média; só a cidade de SP perdeu 16 mil vagas"

Boryana Dzhambazova

 
Carmen Victoria Inojosa Sierra
Historias que Laten: A special three-part reportage of how gun violence in preschools and poor neighborhoods affects the youngest children and their caregivers 
 
Conflict

Rosie Scammell

National News: “She has stopped being happy: Six months on, Gaza’s children remain haunted by war” 

National News: “How Gaza amputees adjust after suffering wounds of war

National News: “Traumatised Gaza children and parents struggle to come to terms with death and war

Diana Kruzman
 
 
 
Poverty

Malte Werner 

The Guardian: “‘We clap if none die’: Covid forces hard choices in Sierra Leone” 

 Taz: “Where Covid Kills Children

Fabiola Torres

Salud Con Lupa: "Las madres cuidadoras de Cuna Más no reciben un sueldo por su labor con los niños"

Amanda Audi

The Brazilian Report: "Hunger and financial ruin see the return of renting children in Brazil"

Matheus de Moura

Ponte: "Violence in a “favela” in Rio affects childhood"

Luisa Schiff

Globo: "Poor housing affects children"
 

Climate
Rosa Chávez Yacila

OjoPúblico: "Los niños de los ríos de colores: la contaminación en las cuencas del Titicaca"

Malte Werner and José García Escobar

New Humanitarian: “How COVID-19 and climate shocks are hurting children’s health in Guatemala

Jose Garcia Escobar

Plaza Publica: “Una niñez devastada: así deterioraron la pandemia y las tormentas la desnutrición y el aprendizaje

Sarah Fernandes

Brasil de Fato: "Infância minada: garimpos ilegais de ouro no Tapajós adoecem crianças ribeirinhas"

Tatiane Ribeiro

Crescer: "Usina de Belo Monte: os efeitos na vida das crianças ribeirinhas que tiveram de sair do seu hábitat"

Ritwika Mitra

Fifty Two: "Storm Cycle"

Stefania D'Ignoti

Syria Untold: "Their whole world crumbled before their eyes"
 

Science and Ethics
Mariana Lenharo 

Undark: “To Study Zika, They Offered Their Kids. Then They Were Forgotten
 

COVID-19 Pandemic

Anna Virginia Balloussier 

Folha de S. Paulo (main Brazilian newspaper): "Development of children born on day 1 of the pandemic"

Heidi Shin
The World: "Chinatown preschool helps families name pandemic-related feelings"

Trauma

Emilio Sant'Anna
Estadão: "When it rains, my son starts to cry: Children live under trauma in Petropólis"

Sarah Carr
Hechinger Report: "Black and Latino infants and toddlers often miss out on early therapies they need"

 

You can find out more about the Early Childhood Initiative here.

The fellowship has been underwritten by the Bernard van Leer Foundation (Netherlands), Fundação Maria Cecilia Souto Vidigal (Brazil), and The Two Lilies Fund (United States).