Development Programme for Female Journalists

Project Period: February 2007 to April 2009
Donor: Free Voice

The project started in February 2007 was aimed to increase the number of skilled female journalists in Bangladesh. During the project period, a six-month fellowship on journalism was provided to 80 female graduates. And some 20 female journalists, working from port city of Chittagong, received weeklong training on reporting skills. The project turned out successful when two third of the trained fellows took journalism as their profession.

Bea ten Tusscher, Ambassador of the Netherlands to Bangladesh and former USA Ambassador to Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Lauren Kaheaokekai Moriarty visited the News Network to meet the fellows and encouraged them. They also appreciated News Network for its activities. 

Bea ten Tusscher visited the News Network office on 19 August 2008 and distributed certificates among a group of fellows who completed their six-month training programme on practical journalism.

Fellows prepared more than two hundred news features/in-depth reports and most of those items were released to the print media, and published with due credit. Books compiled of their items were published in both Bangle and English languages.