Pulitzer Center Update

This Week: The Most Dangerous Journey

Skull on a stake

A human skull serves as a warning to travelers in the Gap. Image courtesy of Carlos Villalon. Panama, 2016.

The Most Dangerous Journey
Jason Motlagh

The Darién Gap is a 10,000-square-mile rectangle of swamp, mountains and rainforest that spans both sides of the border between Colombia and Panama. Plenty of things here can kill you, from venomous snakes to murderous outlaws who want your money. Pulitzer Center grantee Jason Motlagh came to this inhospitable place to report on the most improbable travelers imaginable: migrants who, by choice, are passing through the Darién region from all over the world, in a round-about bid to reach the United States and secure refugee status. As Jason reports, they make this perilous journey not because they want to harm Americans, but because they want to be Americans.

Game of Greed
Will Fitzgibbon and Alvaro Ortiz

The Panama Papers project has now turned its attention to Africa, where offshore companies enable crooks to steal about $50 billion a year. To help readers better grasp the magnitude of this problem, we partnered with ICIJ to create an interactive game that challenges you to uncover secrets hidden inside the Panama Papers.

With our Lesson Builder, teachers can use the game to introduce students to the Panama Papers.

A Helping Hand for Refugees
Mark Johnson and Mark Hoffman

A Syrian-American doctor from Milwaukee provides care and comfort to refugees from his homeland. Grantees Mark Johnson and Mark Hoffman tell the story of how one person makes a difference.