We are super excited to continue our partnership with One Earth, to offer 5 young journalists the opportunity to highlight local solutions to sustainability challenges in their countries.
We received impressive submissions from each corner of the globe and to each of you we are grateful. After careful review of each pitch, we are happy to present the Fellows who rose to the top. These young aspiring writers will be taking part in an awesome 6-month paid media mentorship-fellowship combo!
DANIEL WHYTE, NIGERIA
Daniel Whyte is a storyteller and journalist with a deep interest in development. He’s the youngest of this group of Fellows! At just 20 years old, Daniel already holds a BA in English and Literary Studies (First Class Honours). In 2019, he was selected as one of the top hundred young journalists and media makers in the world by British Council and he received full sponsorship to attend the 2019 Future News Worldwide conference held at the Thomson Reuters Headquarters, London, UK.
He has previously written for Stears Business, HumAngle Media, International Centre for Investigative Reporting, The Cable Newspaper, among others.
Daniel, who is currently a journalist with Premium Time Center for Investigative Journalism and a researcher on the Natural Resource and Extractive Programme, shared with us that “local solutions are important to achieve sustainability. They are important because they take into consideration the specific realities of the local contexts where they are applied rather than generally borrowing foreign models which may not work.”
Good job Daniel, we look forward to working with you and highlighting sustainability in Nigeria.
PRISCILLA SANTOS DA SILVA, ITALY
Priscilla is our resident Brazilian who has been soaking up the la dolce vita in Italy for the past 5 years. She is a 32 year old researcher, photographer, and aspiring media professional. With a degree in International Relations and having graduated in Diplomacy from Università degli studi di Salerno, she works today to promote sustainable tourism on the Amalfi Coast.
Priscilla believes that local solutions are a key ingredient in achieving sustainability.
“Sustainability is our daily routine today, it is our present and future. Caring for nature, recycling and balancing. We can say that journalists and scientists also work in the area of education, educating for sustainability. A new look, an alert, testimonies and a request for change, on the part of the economy, environmental and social,” she shared with us.
MILTON LOPEZ, PERÚ
Milton Antonio López Tarabochia, who also goes by the shorter version of his name….Milton Lopez, is 27 years and he hails from Lima, Perú.
He has published in Mongabay (USA) and Mongabay (Latin America) about a major oil spill in Peruvian waters . He is very proud of these publications, as he should be, because he was a nominee with the team to the National Journalism Award in the Writing Category. After this publication he continued writing many similar articles, which influenced the Government’s decision to create a special fund for remedying the oil spill catastrophe.
Think Globally, Act Locally – To Milton, this phrase is especially important for environmental reasons.
We’re inspired by Milton’s words that “climate communications and journalism are like a bridge between vulnerable people affected by climate change and industrial pollution with the private sector and political authorities. We analyzed the conflict between private interests and civil rights. We are responsible for producing clear and strong messages that denounce what is wrong, replicate what is right, and remember always what really matters.” 
ADRIANA NAVARRO – MÉXICO
Adriana Navarro Ramírez is a Mexican freelance journalist. She has worked in different mass media such as El informador, Mural, Este País NTR, CNN México, Radio Universidad de Guadalajara, Canal 44 and La Gaceta.
In the last couple years, she has had the opportunity to travel to seasides of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and Honduras to write chronicles about the way in which the communities have organized to protect their territories and their seas.
The chronicles were published in different books: Written with Blue Ink 1 and 2; Leadership in the Mesoamerican Reef and Women of the Sea sponsored by the KFW German Development Bank and Mar Fund, an independent international non-profit organization.
Adriana shared with us that she believes “sustainability consists of respectfully relating to our natural environment. In adequately taking advantage of ecosystems, biodiversity, landscapes, functions and environmental services with a long-term vision that does not affect the integrity and availability of resources for the following generations.”
VAISHNAVI RATHORE, INDIA
Currently living in New Delhi, India, Vaishnavi is a 25-year old semi-nomad. She moved around a lot while growing up and this gave her a chance to live all across the country, from the deserts of Rajasthan to the Himalayas and the fertile plains of Punjab.
For a little over a year, she has been working as an Environment Associate with The Bastion, a young development journalism organisation that focuses on coverage of environment, education, sports, and more recently on tech and health. Vaishnavi has also published her stories with Down to Earth – India’s leading environment magazine, Mongabay-India, The Kashmir Times, and IndiaSpend—India’s first data driven journalism portal.
Before stepping into full-time journalism, she had the chance of working with two environmental NGOs for two years. There, she saw numerous examples of how local solutions contribute to sustainability. Whether it was a group of people in a village near Udaipur in Rajasthan who restored over a 100 acres of forest through collective efforts, or a Panchayat—an elected Village Council— in the Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh who attempted to decentralise waste processing, she says found a lot of hope from “bottom-up” approaches of sustainability solutions. In all such solutions, the one common—and important—thread was the institutionalising of local communities.
“I find journalism and climate communications to play an important role. Often, the very important ideas of “sustainability” or “climate change” get lost in the language of emissions and temperatures. How does this look on the ground? What do such concepts mean to people?”
Vaishnavi believes that climate communications and journalism help answer some of these questions, while putting a real picture to terms which otherwise might sound technical.
All the best to everyone!!