Persephone Miel Fellowship–Support Opportunities for International Journalists

Dear Friends of Persephone Miel,

Can’t you imagine Persephone smiling at the way her vision is being realized? She wanted journalists’ voices to go beyond their country and to reach the widest possible audience.

Miel fellows like Ana P. Santos are doing all that, and more. Ana is an independent journalist based in Manila, Philippines, focusing mainly on HIV/AIDS and reproductive health, gender issues, and the inequalities that arise from being the only country in the world that forbids divorce.

Ana has written about the hundreds of thousands of Filipina women who leave their children behind to work abroad as nannies and domestic workers. A motherless generation continues to grow as more and more women join the migrant work force. 

Ana has been published in The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Foreign Policy, IRIN News, Rappler, The Atlantic, Deutsche Welle–Germany, and The Guardian, and featured in the Pulitzer Center e-book To End AIDS. She has spoken about her work at universities and participated in international global health conferences in Bali, Copenhagen and South Africa. And she is an increasingly prominent voice reporting on the Filipino government's brutal crackdown against drug abuse.

Our Persephone Miel Fellows make a difference by telling stories from a unique perspective—from the stunning photography of Iranian journalist Ako Salemi for Vox on how climate change is affecting his country to the reporting by Yam Kumari Kandel, Shilu Manandhar, and Mary Wairimu on the struggles faced by migrant workers from Nepal and Kenya.

We are grateful for your previous contributions that have made these fellowships and successes possible. Today we are writing to ask you to renew your support—to provide opportunities for more international journalists to report on a global issue while also reaching a broader, more diverse audience beyond their home countries.

This fellowship program, founded in 2010 in collaboration with Internews, honors the memory of Persephone Miel, a journalist, advocate, and friend, who wanted to ensure that the voices of international journalists be heard. To date we have funded 10 fellows.

Each year, a Persephone Miel Fellow receives a $7,500 grant from the Pulitzer Center to report on a global issue: We need your help to fund fellows in 2017—and in the years to come.