Why The World Needs More Local Women Journalists, Not Foreign Correspondents

I have spent my life committed to the craft of journalism. The science of information gathering. The art of storytelling.

In 2004, I was a stringer on assignment in Nepal. In my first weeks on the job I realized that my dream job was anything but. I lacked access to real people. I, like most foreign correspondents, worked through fixers and translators. I was barely scratching the surface.

It was here, in Nepal, that I had my epiphany—I was the wrong person to be reporting the news. No matter how familiar I became with Nepalese culture, I would always be an outsider, a foreigner facing an unbridgeable gap in reporting the social, historical and political context of these people and this place.

From this epiphany, Global Press Institute was born.

Today, Global Press Institute (GPI) is an award-winning, high-impact social venture that uses journalism as a development tool to educate, employ, and empower women in the developing world to produce high-quality local news coverage that elevates global awareness and ignites social change. GPI has trained and employed more than 130 women in 26 developing countries.

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At GPI, we believe that in the hands of women, journalism and photojournalism can elevate global awareness and spur local change on a variety of issues. To elevate the impact of our work, GPI is harnessing the power of photography with a new project designed to get new cameras in the hands of our women journalists across the world, along with photojournalism training.

"Through Our Eyes" is a photojournalism project for GPI journalists in 10 developing countries. We teamed up with brilliant, professional photojournalists around the globe who will bring new cameras to 10 GPI News Desks this year. The photojournalists will host an intensive two-day photojournalism training in each location in order to enable GPI reporters to elevate the quality of images they take to pair with their news coverage.

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Then, for the next 12 months we will gather the best and most powerful images captured by GPI reporters in the course of their reporting. These high-impact photographs will address local social justice and human rights issues as well as showcase the beauty and development occurring in their communities. The images will fill the pages of the first GPI photography book, “Through our Eyes.”

Supporting this project on Kickstarter means supporting the creation of two pieces of art—the book and portrait exhibit—that will celebrate the women journalists and photojournalists of GPI who use journalism as a development tool to ignite social change!

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