Early Childhood Journalism Initiative: Work We Have Supported
Smusa Wenkeosa (L), 22, who suffers severe breathing pathologies and kidney failure, is seen in her house in Vosman, Mpumalanga, on March 31, 2022 with her daughter Velo (C), 1, who is suffering from asthma, and her mother Thandive (R), 62. In a groundbreaking ruling, a court has ordered the South African government to reduce air pollution in a coal-mining belt ranked by Greenpeace as the world's most polluting cluster.
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)
Dor: "After a murder in the family, what happens to the children?"
Radio Romania Cultural: "Science 360" (Episode Three)
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”
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
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: "Politics is for kids"
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
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”
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"
Science and Ethics
Mariana Lenharo
Undark: “To Study Zika, They Offered Their Kids. Then They Were Forgotten”
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).
