Multitasking

The problem with doing journalism for a non-governmental organization is that you’re pretty much a mouthpiece for their particular cause. IBJ is a good NGO with an important mission so I don’t really have a problem with it, but it’s still generally frowned upon – which is too bad because, when overseas bureaus are the first things troubled news organizations are liquidating, NGOs and non-profits are going to have to pick up the slack to bring these issues to light. Besides, it doesn’t mean journalists have to limit themselves to the efforts of the organization they’re working with.

While we’re down here, Walker and I are going to be working on a couple of stories independently, including one about the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Swaziland. At almost 50%, the country has the highest rate of infection in the world and, at 31-years-old, one of the lowest life expectancies. (Infant mortality is a big part of that but, when I learned about that statistic, I started noticing how many elderly
people there are not around here).

To get started on this story, we went to a meeting/candlelight vigil hosted by the Matsapha Town Board at the invitation of Alfred, one of our IBJ team members and the director of the Alliance of Mayors Initiative for Community Action on AIDS at the Local Level (AMICAALL). It was attended mostly by local religious leaders and was part of a new initiative to unite the resources of government and the influence of churches to fight the rampant spread of AIDS. A noble cause, surely. We documented the event for AMICAALL but also got some great contacts and interviews for the larger story we’re working on.

In addition to reporting the news, we also made the news. Below is a picture of Walker and me with the CEO of the Matsapha Town Board that appeared in The Times of Swaziland. We were later told that we shouldn’t feel special because every visiting foreigner gets in the paper one way or another (hopefully this is the only context in which I, “Nicholas Loomig”, appear).














Walker also got his first international byline in the same edition for the story we did on the first workshop we did in Ngwenya (mentioned with the link to the IBJ site in the last post). I, however, got no credit for my photos. Typical photog treatment.


















I'll link to the video, with proper credits, once it's done.

Take Care,

Nicholas Loomig