Health-e News’ OurHealth citizen journalism programme offers a unique opportunity for health activists and aspiring health journalists in rural and poorly-covered areas in South Africa to report stories about health issues affecting their communities. 

Through their reporting, the citizen journalists have an opportunity to hold local authorities and governments accountable for conditions of health facilities and service delivery in any of the nine National Health Insurance (NHI) pilot districts.

The programme offers training for candidates to gain practical experience in journalism and be mentored by the Health-e-News award-winning team. Exceptional stories by candidates will be published on Health-e’s website and can be placed on either of the following media outlets: The Citizen, Daily Maverick, The Star, Sunday Tribune, and Pretoria News.

Who we are looking for: 

Are you a young and dynamic health activist or aspiring health journalist, between the ages of 20-30 years old, who is passionate about some or all of the issues below?

• Gender-based violence

• LGBTIAQ+ and health

• Sexual reproductive health rights for young women

• Young people, HIV, food and nutrition

Are you interested in reading and commenting on local and national health news?

Do you have experience in community engagements and mobilisation, especially for health services access? Are you passionate about using media to highlight issues in your community? Are you confident in your ability to ask local authorities hard questions about the conditions of health services in your community?

Requirements:

You must be able to commit to the programme full time for six months. You will be required to submit a minimum of six stories every month, which will be published by Health-e News and its media partners.

Benefits:

• A stipend allowance per month

• A smart tablet loaded with 2GB of data every month for research and to file stories

• Training in health news writing and feature stories

• Skills in photography and basic photojournalism

• Background introduction to South Africa health systems and policies

• Opportunity to work closely with award-winning journalists

We highly encourage young black womxn*, LGBTIAQ+ and gender non-conforming people to apply.

Click here to apply!

*Womxn is spelled this way to include trans womxn