Zainab Bala wins Michael Elliot Journalism Award

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Zainab Bala wins Michael Elliot Award
Zainab Bala

 

Admin l Saturday, May 15, 2021

 

LAGOS – Nigerian journalist, Zainab Bala has won the 2021 Michael Elliott Award for excellence in African Story telling. Zainab Bala won the award   based on her report on how children who left their homes for religious education are subjected to neglect and abuse at the hands of teachers.

She is a broadcast journalists who works with Gotel TV in Yola, North-East Nigeria.

“We are thrilled to present the 2021 Michael Elliott Award to Nigerian journalist Zainab Bala, who has reported how children who left their homes for religious education are subjected to neglect & abuse at the hands of their teachers”, the ICJ said.

The Michael Elliott Award for Excellence in African Storytelling is a collaboration between the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ), the ONE Campaign, and the Elliott family. The award  honors up-and-coming journalists in Africa who strives to strengthen people’s voices and illuminate the transformational change taking place on the continent.

Zainab Bala  won the award after the ICJ  expanded the competition to honor two award winners who published groundbreaking journalistic work between December 1, 2019 and December 1, 2020.

The Award was established in honor of Michael Elliott, an outstanding editor, philanthropist, and former ICFJ director, whose life was a testament to the power of storytelling to bear witness to and improve the human condition.

Elliott served as a distinguished editor at The Economist, Newsweek, and Time before becoming CEO of ONE. In 2016, he had spoken of his dream to establish an award that would bring together his belief in great journalism with his commitment to progress in Africa.

Past award winners include Mercy Juma and Dorcas Wangira of Kenya, and Kiki Mordi and Abubakar Ibrahim from Nigeria. Each was awarded a $5,000 cash prize. Wangira’s award-winning story, “The App and The Cut,” covered the harm caused by female genital mutilation and the hope offered by five high school girls who invented an app to connect vulnerable girls with resources and rescue centers.

Juma’s story, “Teen Mums of Kwale,” tells of primary school girls whose families make the controversial choice to let them use contraceptives even though the practice is taboo in the Muslim communities of Kenya’s Kwale County. Ibrahim’s piece, “All That Was Familiar,” chronicles the struggle of two women –one from Cameroon and one from Nigeria — to find their loved ones who have been internally displaced by Boko Haram’s insurgency. Mordi’s story, “Sex for Grades,” exposes sexual harassment in African universities. Read more about Mordi, the 2020 award winner, here.

 

 

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