Salim Abu Jabal has a deep love for cinema. Making it, creating it, talking about it, using it as an activist tool. An experienced filmmaker and former journalist and passionate about his activism in one of the most difficult parts of the world – the Israeli occupied Golan Heights – he specializes in cultural and cinematic topics related to Palestine and Israel. His feature documentary, “Roshmia,” received global awards. He founded cinema clubs in the Golan Heights, Ramallah, and Haifa, while also programming film festivals.

In addition to his roles as a film producer and filmmaker, he is actively involved with marginalized communities and writes about environmental issues connected to the situations in the West Bank and Golan Heights, areas that were occupied by Israel in 1967.

His Bertha Challenge project, a film, will look at the areas in the Golan Heights threatened by the turbines project initiated by a private company with support from the Israeli government. The company provided disinformation to the community and took over apple and cherry farms without being clear about the long-term environmental and health damage the turbines would cause. The local farmers community went to court to cancel the contracts with the deceived farmers.

Through his film, Salim will be actively engaged with the community campaign against the turbines project, collaborating with the Al-Marsad – a human rights center in the Golan Heights – to thwart its implementation and protect the farmers land.

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Patrick Egwu is a Nigerian independent investigative journalist and media researcher based out of Toronto. For his fellowship year, he will be working and living in Nigeria. He covers human rights, social justice, conflict and development and has reported from Toronto, Chicago, Berlin, Lagos and Johannesburg. Amongst his many accolades as an investigative journalist, Patrick was an Open Society Foundations Fellow at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg during which time he undertook a three month-long undercover investigation into the sale of fake COVID-19 test results in South Africa. He was a finalist for the 2022 Taco Kuiper Award for Investigative Journalism which celebrates outstanding investigative reporting. He was a 2023 recipient of Texas A&M University’s Conflict and Development grants to investigate armed conflict in northwest Nigeria and impacts on marginalized communities.

For his Bertha Challenge project, Patrick will spend the fellowship year investigating climate disinformation and corruption in Nigeria through a 10-part multimedia investigative series connecting the dots between political elites and power and disinformation.

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Catur lives his activism: His home town, a densely populated area, has seen numerous accidents caused by the gas drilling industry. Yet, the Indonesian government permits gas drilling companies new mining licenses despite research findings showing mud-flow areas contributing 100,000 tons of Methane per year. Catur has advocated for the rights of the mud-eruption victim community for more than 15 years. He has been monitoring the ongoing environmental devastation caused by mining and in 2022, he and his colleagues wrote their findings in the book “Remedi Sidoarjo”, Surviving Multi-Impact Lapindo Mud Dimensions in 2022.

During his fellowship year, Catur wants to expose how the energy industry has successfully covered its industrial scale destruction; how they’ve avoided public attention connecting it to the climate crisis. He will provide a documentary film to show the impacts of the fossil industries, their contribution to the climate crisis, and how the energy industries promote their participation in reducing emissions by investing in renewable energy.

The documentary will help his community understand the role of the energy industries that promote new and renewable energy; while still using the same method for extraction causing destruction of the environment and ruining people’s lives.

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AnuOluwapo is a journalist, documentary filmmaker and director of video productions at The Cable Newspaper Journalism Foundation.

Living in the most densely populated country in Africa, AnuOluwapo’s Fellowship work is framed by her first hand experience of erratic and highly unreliable water supplies. She produced a documentary series about the dynamics behind the lack of access of many Nigerians to clean water. She traveled to five different states in Nigeria, investigating gold mining and industrial water pollution, and failed government drinking water projects. Her documentary presents the connection between water, politics and corruption across Nigeria and its effects on people and the environment.

AnuOluwapo holds an MA in Journalism & Documentary Practice from the University of Sussex. She is a founding member of the Women’s Economic Imperative, a UNICEF Voices of Youth alumni, Carrington Youth Fellow, U.S. Consul General Award Recipient, UN WOMEN/Empower Women Global Champion for Change, Chevening alumni and USGEEA Women achievers awardee.

Shinji works with groups led by women and LBT+ people throughout Brazil, especially in their activities related to the environment and conflicts. Shinji’s work includes supporting mobilization efforts, fundraising, building networks and participating in joint efforts to protect rights.

Shinji spent their Fellowship year traveling between Indigenous communities, urban peripheries and small farmers in Brazil, including in the Amazon and Cerrado regions, who face extreme threats from land grabbing, mining, logging and the hostile political environment.

Shinji wrote a book documenting the water challenges that communities face, and used these to tell stories of their wider struggles for existence.

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Fumba, known professionally as Pilato, is a recording artist and social activist. The name Pilato is an acronym for ‘People in Lyrical Arena Taking Over.’ Born and raised in Zambia’s Copperbelt Province, Fumba commenced his career as a poet and in 2010 he launched into music. With four studio albums, Pilato has continued to inspire political debates and conversations, while championing a more equal and fair society. As a result of his critical political standpoint, he has endured fierce political threats and been arrested several times. In 2020, he founded an organization called People’s Action for Accountability and Good Governance (PAAGZ), a local CSO promoting good governance and accountability, where he currently serves as the Executive Director.

During his Bertha Challenge Fellowship, Fumba worked intimately with grassroots and community groups, producing a music album on water access and political power in Zambia. Fumba’s project is called ‘LIFELESS.’ His ten songs are accompanied by powerful music videos.

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Tommy is a freelance investigative journalist who writes about the environment, health and politics from Ireland, the UK and Spain.

Tommy used his Bertha Challenge Fellowship to investigate industrial scale sand dredging in Lough Neagh, one of biggest freshwater lake systems in north-western Europe. The lake is owned by the Earl of Shaftesbury, an English aristocrat, who has overseen decades of unregulated extraction whilst raking in massive profits.

Tommy used a lidar survey to publicly document, for the first time, the extent of damage caused to the lake bed. He uncovered apparently illegitimate tax breaks awarded to a number of the biggest Lough Neagh extraction firms, prompting a government investigation, and he traced the end point for sand taken from the lough, uncovering devastating environmental damage and destruction. 

His Fellowship project also investigated the Shaftesbury Estate’s profiteering at Lough Neagh, questions over its historical claim to the lake and surrounding hinterland, as well as previous failed attempts to bring the lough into public ownership.

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Maria is a CHamoru environmental and cultural rights activist. She is also a lineal descendent of ancestral land in Guam called Ritidian, which is proposed to be used as a buffer zone for a U.S. Marine Live Fire Training Range Complex. She organizes with Hita Litekyan, a coalition of CHamoru families pushing back against the firing range complex. 

Maria’s Fellowship project focused on how relationships between politics and profit are contributing to the degradation of Guåhan’s (Guam) main freshwater aquifer and the contamination of the island’s coastal waters. She had a particular focus on a massive U.S. Marine Live Fire Training Range Complex spanning 700 acres that is being built above the island’s primary water source.

Maria created three short films about her year’s investigations, with the first film highlighting the risks to Guam’s water resources by U.S. military projects and how Guam’s political status as an unincorporated territory of the U.S. makes the island vulnerable to projects that harm its natural and cultural resources. The second film looked at the impacts to water from U.S. imperialism and hyper militarization of the Pacific region; and the third film placed a spotlight on historical contamination in Guam’s wetlands and lagoon and links to health problems within the community including devastating testimonies of death and sickness of local inhabitants of Guam. Maria’s films were shown at community screenings on the island.

Maria serves as a board director of Micronesia Climate Change Alliance, a grassroots network of individuals and organizations dedicated to creating community-centered solutions to climate change; an organizer with I Hagan Famalao’an Guahan, a CHamoru Women’s Association of Guåhan founded on the collective mission to enhance, promote, protect and foster the social, economic, cultural, spiritual and political well-being of CHamoru women, girls and gender-diverse people within the overall Guåhan community.

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Luisa is a freedom of information activist and campaign coordinator with Open Knowledge Foundation Germany. Luisa uses European freedom of information laws to conduct investigations, campaigns and litigation for greater transparency and accountability. Luisa’s work has a specific focus on European border control policies, EU lobbying and EU climate policies.

For her Bertha Challenge Fellowship, Luisa worked with investigative journalist Jelena Prtorić (journalist Fellow, Germany). Luisa and Jelena conducted an in-depth investigation into the quality of water in the EU, focusing specifically on agricultural pollution by pesticides and nutrients. Luisa used freedom of information requests and interviews with activists and communities to build a database of information about pesticide pollution of water sources in four European countries, including her native Spain. The database is held on a ‘water hub’ website, along with Jelena’s investigative stories.

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Through her Bertha Challenge investigation, Pascalinah has become the first Lesotho female investigative journalist to publish a book. She has a keen interest in science related issues, gender and politics. She serves on the MNN Centre for Investigative Journalism Board of Directors and is the Federation of International Journalists’ Trainer of Trainers on Gender Safety in the Newsroom.

Pascalinah spent her Fellowship year investigating the devastating impact of mining on water. She focused on the Lesotho Highlands Water Project and the imbalance between the development of water resources for commercial and mining industries with community water priorities, in the face of acute and increased droughts.

Her investigations uncovered that the British controlled Letšeng Diamond Mine was knowingly responsible for polluting drinking water, despite previous public claims by both the mine and the Government that this wasn’t the case. She also revealed a confidential report showing that a number of mines were contaminating rivers in the Lesotho Highlands Water Project catchment area (a source of drinking water for Lesotho and South Africa) with dangerous levels of nitrates.

Pascalinah is an award-winning journalist, and has been awarded reporting grants administered by University of Witwatersrand’s Department of Journalism (Africa-China Investigative Reporting 2018 and 2021), the Centre for Collaborative Investigative Journalism (2021) and Internews’ Earth Journalism Network (2021). She was commissioned by Euronews to investigate and produce a Lesotho segment of Cry Like a Boy – an original series on men challenging stereotypes and fighting for gender equality. 

Abdikhayr works with the Somali Government and local and international organizations in humanitarian assistance, peace-building and development for displaced and rural communities in Somalia. 

During his Fellowship, Abdikhayr worked with various clans among rural communities affected by severe drought and prolonged water conflicts. He organized consultation meetings with community elders and women’s groups across five different states. 

The consultation meetings were structured as mediations that Abdikhayr used to develop a guidance handbook for the fair and sustainable management of shared water sources in Somalia’s rural valley areas. He also produced an accompanying set of short films documenting the mediation and conflict-resolution processes among the communities that he worked in.

Fredrick is an award-winning water and climate change journalist, media trainer and communications specialist. He founded Water Journalists Africa, a non-profit media group that brings together over 700 journalists in 50 African countries to report on water-related issues. He is also co-founder of InfoNile, a platform that maps data on water issues in the Nile River Basin and overlays them with journalism stories to promote transboundary peace. 

For his Bertha Challenge Fellowship project, Fredrick investigated the impact of plastic pollution on Uganda’s Rift Valley lakes. He wrote about sources of plastic pollution, the companies responsible for manufacturing single use plastic bottles and the failures by local authorities to enforce environmental standards. As part of his Fellowship, he also created a short documentary, and organised a community exhibition of photographs taken during his investigations.

Fredrick has an MA in Communication for Development. He also studied a PGD in Environmental Journalism and Communication and has a BA in Mass Communication. A National Geographic Storytelling explorer, and a Pulitzer Center Grantee, Fredrick has reported from various countries in Africa, Europe, Asia and the United States of America.

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Musuk is a photographer who works on documentary projects regarding human rights, Indigenous communities and environmental issues. 

For his Bertha Challenge project, Musuk traveled to different territories in Peru – Iquitos, Belén, Cusco and Puno – to investigate access to drinking water and communities’ relationship to water. He photographed communities and their responses to water scarcity and water pollution. 

In Belén, communities live on raised buildings above contaminated river water for eight months of the year, worsened by illegal mining in the river basin. Musuk worked with a group of young people who took powerful portraits of one another in a local lagoon for a community action.

Musuk’s project culminated in the production of a photo essay book, with posters of a selection of his photos – usable art that he distributed among those that he worked with during the year.

A Magnum Foundation and Pulitzer Center Grantee, as well as a National Geographic Explorer, Musuk is also founder and editor of “KWY Ediciones”, an independent platform for the collective editing and learning of visual narratives for authors in Latin America. He is also part of the urban lighting action collective, Grita Luz.

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Jelena is a freelance journalist who has reported for a wide variety of publications in English, French, Italian and her native Croatian. Her work has focused on gender and human rights, migration, the environment/ climate, culture and social movements, through an investigative and often cross-border lens. As of 2020, Jelena is the Arena Climate Network coordinator for Arena for Journalism in Europe. She is also an occasional podcaster and translator of graphic novels.

For her Bertha Challenge Fellowship, Jelena worked with Luisa Izuzquiza (activist Fellow, Belgium). Jelena and Luisa conducted an in-depth investigation into the quality of water in the EU, focusing specifically on agricultural pollution by pesticides and nutrients. Jelena produced stories on specific water-related issues in the EU, France, Spain, Italy and The Netherlands. With Luisa, she created a ‘water hub’ website housing their investigations and a database of information about agricultural pollution of water bodies.

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Abiose works at the Cable Newspaper Journalism Foundation, where she coordinates a program that focuses on using the tool of investigative reporting for accountability and transparency. As a recipient of the Red Ribbon Award, and a fellow of the World Federation of Science Journalists, she has been at the forefront of reporting on science and development issues.

During her Fellowship year, Abiose published a series of articles and video reports about the social and economic failures that have contributed to the environmental degradation of the Niger Delta region. She visited illegal oil refineries, stalled oil-spill clean-ups and gas flare sites, to show the extent that communities have been affected by oil extraction in the region.

Abiose used these experiences from her investigations to write and stage a play in Ogoniland, in the Niger Delta in an attempt to reach a wider audience. The play, Environmental Refugees, confronted issues such as the lack of drinking water, lack of secure employment and health problems caused by oil extraction in Ogoni and other oil-rich areas. It was attended by over 300 residents from 17 local communities and was so well-received, a production company is talking to her about turning her play into a feature film.

LJ is an organizer, direct action trainer and a dancer. Over the past decade she has worked with resettled refugees, opiate users, families fractured by mass incarceration, homeowners in foreclosures and Indigenous communities on the frontlines of climate change. LJ is a Collective Member of Mayday Space, an organizing center and social movement hub in Brooklyn, a trainer for The Center for Story-Based Strategy and The Ruckus Society and the civilian-ally board member of About Face: Veterans Against the War.

LJ used her Fellowship to create a nonviolent direct action incubation and experimentation lab. She organized a series of ‘tac hacks’ – spaces for activists and professional makers such as electricians, designers and carpenters to come up with new and imaginative direct-action tactics. LJ’s final workshop was a climate justice ‘training of trainers’ using the tac hack methodology.

LJ also built a digital resource commons for activists. The site includes a library of activist books, manuals and videos, alongside a database of physical organizing tools that New York-based activists can borrow from the Mayday space.

Yasna is a freelance Chilean reporter, based in Santiago de Chile. For a decade she has worked as an international correspondent for various written and radio media, reporting from Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Her work has been published in La Tercera (Chile), The New York Times, Vice (Mexico) and Mediapart (France). She is co-founder of Late Magazine, where she is currently working as Editor and mediambiente.cl, a site committed to climate change.

During her Bertha Challenge project, Yasna worked with Juan Donoso (activist Fellow), to investigate the extraction of lithium from the ‘lithium triangle’ covering Chile, Argentina and Bolivia for electric cars marketed in Europe. Yasna visited sites of lithium mining to explore how the mining is affecting local ecosystems and communities, including the Atacama salt plains, home to one of the largest lithium mines in South America.

Linh has spent the last decade in climate action, across advocacy, media and social enterprise. She is passionate about strengthening civic institutions to achieve climate justice through tackling social inequality. Linh led the Australia and Pacific office for Climate Reality, Al Gore’s leadership program. She previously served as the editor-in-chief at The Verb, an environmental newswire service, where she covered the Paris Agreement negotiations. She is currently a board member at Climate Action Network Australia.

Linh worked with a number of campaign groups to design tailored engagement strategies on supporting and cultivating climate activism. She published a report on cultural adaptation of climate campaign resources for activists in Asia with The Campaign Strategy Fellowship. She also wrote a research paper on upcoming opportunities for public engagement with Climate Action Australia. Linh organized a series of roundtable events to present her findings to participants from various Australian climate organizations.

Throughout the Fellowship year, Linh was a guest co-host on the Greatest Moral Podcast of Our Generation, a monthly podcast by Dan Ilic (journalist Fellow) that aimed to bring discussions on difficult climate topics to new audiences through comedy.

Fede is a storyteller and land defender. He works with social movements and communities to develop narratives that respond to day to day struggles, and that dismantle oppressive structures.

During his Bertha Challenge Fellowship, Fede worked with Andrea Isabel Ixchiú Hernández (journalist Fellow) to share three stories of resistance told by women. Their work focuses on the intersection of organized women, Indigenous rights and territory with an emphasis on water, land and governance.

Along with the three films, Andrea and Fede also organized ‘Curra da Terra’, an online gathering of more than 267 Indigenous women from 116 Indigenous nations in 37 different countries. The event called on Indigenous women from around the world to share their experiences of resisting profit-driven destruction of Indigenous territories, and the violence that accompanies it.

Juan is a climate justice organizer, campaigner and writer based in Berlin. He seeks to foster dialogues between anti-capitalist movements and community building networks. In recent years, Juan has been working with Bloque Latinoamericano, a collective of people and organizations of the left in Berlin. His work focuses on the defense of nature and territories, while highlighting the role that European transnational companies have in Latin America.

During his Bertha Challenge project, Juan worked with Yasna Carolina Mussa Valenzuela (journalist Fellow), to investigate the extraction of lithium from the ‘lithium triangle’ covering Chile, Argentina and Bolivia for electric cars marketed in Europe. Together they visited the Atacama salt plains, home to one of the largest lithium mines in South America, to understand the effects of lithium extraction on the local ecosystem and communities.

Juan used the community interviews, along with the work published by Yasna, to develop an educational curriculum for young people in Germany on lithium extraction. He also developed a series of short videos and animations for young people and teachers to explore alongside the curriculum.

Dan is one of Australia’s most prolific comedy filmmakers and radio journalists. Calling himself an “investigative humorist”, Dan has used comedy as an activist tool throughout his professional career in Australia and the U.S. He has performed in front of thousands of people across Australia, including sell out shows at the Sydney Opera House and on ABC Radio National.

Dan is the host of the award-winning podcast and live comedy show, A Rational Fear – a show that brings together journalists, comedians, experts and politicians and uses comedy to talk about climate issues that get overlooked in mainstream media. During his Bertha Challenge year, he used this weekly podcast to engage new audiences with the climate crisis through comedy. He launched a monthly climate focused podcast, Greatest Moral Podcast of Our Generation, which was co-hosted by Linh Do (activist Fellow).

Dan’s Fellowship year culminated with live shows in two of Australia’s climate-vulnerable cities: Newcastle, a traditional mining area and home to Australia’s largest coal mines; and Bega, one of the areas worst hit by the 2020 bushfires, where promised emergency funds still haven’t been delivered.

Andrea is a journalist, human rights activist and defender of the territory. She is a Nobel Women’s Initiative Fellow and was awarded the Sakharov Prize Fellowship, which honors individuals and groups of people who have dedicated their lives to the defense of human rights and freedom of thought. Andrea has also been an Indigenous authority in her hometown of Totonicapán.

During her Bertha Challenge Fellowship, Andrea worked with Federico Etiene Zuvire Cruz (activist Fellow) to share three stories of resistance told by women. Their work focuses on the intersection of organized women, Indigenous rights and territory with an emphasis on water, land and governance.

Along with the three films, Andrea and Fede also organized ‘Curra da Terra’, an online gathering of more than 267 Indigenous women from 116 Indigenous nations in 37 different countries. The event called on Indigenous women from around the world to share their experiences of resisting profit-driven destruction of Indigenous territories, and the violence that accompanies it.

Antonia Juhasz is an energy analyst, author and investigative journalist specializing in oil. Her investigations include the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, oil exploitation in the Ecuadorian Amazon, the Paris Climate Accord, the role of oil and natural gas in the Afghanistan war and resistance movements from Standing Rock to the Norwegian Arctic. Her articles and opinion pieces appear in numerous leading magazines and newspapers. Antonia is the author of three books: Black Tide: The Devastating Impact of the Gulf Oil Spill, The Tyranny of Oil and The Bush Agenda.

For her Bertha Challenge project, Antonia published a series of articles analyzing the state of the oil industry through a critical period that included the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 U.S. election. She focused on groups that are challenging the power of oil companies, and the role of women and girls in leading those movements.

Alex is an organizer and artist based on Dja Dja Wurrung Country, ‘Australia’. She has worked in film, theater, communications and troublemaking in many forms. This includes taking part in blockades from Jabiluka in Australia to la zad in France, collaborating on the Indigenous language and theater project, ‘Ngapartji Ngapartji’, and curating the Something Somewhere Film Festival. As a Producer, Director and Impact Producer, Alex has worked on powerful documentary films including Queen of the Desert, THE ISLAND, Island of the Hungry Ghosts and In My Blood It Runs. Alex was also the Global Impact and Distribution Producer on Avi Lewis and Naomi Klein’s This Changes Everything project.

For her Bertha Challenge project, Alex created ‘The Planting’, a speculative audio performance that invites audiences to imagine a more hopeful and just future, and the pragmatic steps needed to get there. Her narrative imagines the introduction of a large-scale ecological recovery, Indigenous-led, employment program in Australia. The experimental sound work is designed to be experienced in tandem with ‘noisy’ weather events such as hailstorms or high winds, bringing together an imagined future and present reality of the climate crisis.

Narrira works as a UX researcher and technologist based in Brazil. She is a digital security trainer for social movements, activist organizations and third-sector organizations, aiming to strengthen privacy and security in collective actions and data uses. Narrira has also worked as a UX Researcher, examining technology products to improve privacy and engagement for human rights defenders. Previously, Narrira was a Mozilla Fellow embedded in the host organization Derechos Digitales.

As a Bertha Challenge Fellow, Narrira worked closely with environmental organizations, and climate and Indigenous activists to strengthen their digital security. She travelled to remote villages where a lack of internet access and digital skills have left activists vulnerable to security breaches and threats. Narrira conducted multi-day workshops, providing some basic steps that participants could use to increase their confidence in working with digital devices. In addition, Narrira ran a series of online tailored courses for activist organizations in Brazil and further afield.

Narrira used the workshops to develop a website with a series of public resources on digital security for activists and Indigenous land defenders.

Mike is a photographer, filmmaker and environmental scientist who uses his knowledge of visual storytelling and conservation to create narratives that drive social change. He holds an MSc in Environmental Sustainability from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. He has directed award-winning films in the Arctic, the Amazon, the Himalayas and East Africa. His work has been featured by National Geographic, The Guardian, Vox, the BBC and others.

For his Bertha Challenge project, Mike spent a month travelling around Chesapeake Bay, photographing and interviewing residents. The Bay is the U.S.’s largest estuary, and an important wetland habitat, facing rising sea levels that threaten the homes and infrastructure of local communities.

Mike used blue tape to physically mark where the coastline is expected to reach by 2100. His photos show the projected coastline cutting across play areas, roads and houses. He also took portraits of local residents standing in places of personal significance with a measurement stick showing how high the water is expected to rise in that location. The portraits are accompanied by interviews with people talking about the importance of the area and about the future of Chesapeake Bay.

Alongside these photos, Mike also produced aerial images showing how much land will be lost by the end of the century if nothing is done to address climate change, compared to how much land will be lost if immediate and radical action is taken.

Bhrikuti is a multimedia journalist based in Kathmandu. During her decade-long career, she has reported extensively on environment, technology and human rights. Bhrikuti loves all things audio, and is co-creator of the feminist podcast Boju Bajai, which she started in 2016 with poet Itisha Giri. Her work has appeared in several Nepali and international media, including The Kathmandu Post, Nepali Times, The Guardian, Los Angeles Times and Buzzfeed News. In 2017, she won a Fulbright scholarship to pursue a Masters degree at Columbia University in New York, where she specialized in investigative journalism.

Bhrikuti used her Bertha Challenge Fellowship to investigate the extent of the ecological damage caused by illegal sand extraction from rivers across Nepal, and its impact on the most vulnerable communities. She investigated the collusion between business and politics, in particular connections between politicians with influence over Nepal’s ecological legislation, and the sand extraction and construction industries. Alongside her investigative stories, Bhrikuti developed a public database with records of Nepal’s public officials and their business interests.

Charles is a Zimbabwean journalist and freedom of expression activist. He has a keen interest in community centric investigative journalism, with a particular focus on social justice and environmental management issues. In 2010, he was one of the founding employees of the Media Centre in Harare, where he was instrumental in establishing a resource centre for freelance journalists and promoting citizen journalism in communities across Zimbabwe. Charles is a Radio Netherlands Certified trainer of trainers in multimedia production and a Programs Officer and Editor at Community Radio Harare, a community radio initiative.

Charles’ Bertha Challenge project focused on the effects of corruption and mismanagement in the delivery of basic sanitation services for marginalized communities, in the context of an escalating climate crisis. He set up the website Dry & Dirty as a platform for news and resources about water pollution and political corruption in Harare and beyond.

In addition to his investigative stories, Charles created a documentary where he talked to communities affected by Harare’s water crisis, including communities whose water supplies have been cut off by illegal construction work on Harare’s wetlands. He also produced an e-book to present his year’s research.

Angeles is Lead Organizer of the Workplace Justice Team at Make the Road New York. Make the Road New York is one of the largest membership led community organizations in New York, providing direct services and organizing for housing, labor, immigrant rights, police accountability, environmental justice and more. Angeles drives the organization’s campaigning against the damage Amazon is doing to communities across New York and the country.

For her Bertha Challenge project, Angeles led a team of graduate students at New York University Wagner Graduate School of Public Service to survey and analyze data from Amazon employees and community members capturing the labor, community and environmental impact of Amazon’s warehouse growth in Staten Island, New York. Angeles and a coalition of labor unions, community organizations and policy experts intend to release this report at the start of the New York session to build power in passing the first ever state level anti-trust legislation in the country to break up Amazon’s monopoly power.

Angeles and LJ Amsterdam (activist Fellow) collaborated on creating mass popular education materials, including an animated workshop guide highlighting Amazon’s exploitation of labor and land, and led direct actions with immigrant community members and Amazon workers.

Sze Ning has been working with Indigenous communities in Malaysia for over 15 years, assisting in advocacy training, documenting and welfare aid.

Sze Ning worked with Elroi Yee (journalist Fellow) to focus on Malaysia’s Indigenous Orang Asli communities who are moving out of government resettlement schemes and returning to their customary lands. These lands are often exploited by the state and commercial enterprises for profit, leaving little resources for Indigenous communities.

Sze Ning and Elroi visited the Orang Asli villages several times during their Fellowship year to better understand what they need to organize against efforts to displace them. Sze Ning found that communities lack information on the most basic of public services. In addition to acting as a liaison point between the villages and healthcare professionals (a vital role during the COVID-19 pandemic), Sze Ning produced a short video toolkit that can be distributed over WhatsApp. She used humor and animations to provide accessible information on topics such as how to document customary lands and how to deal with land incursions by logging companies.

Elroi is a multimedia investigative journalist, whose stories have ranged from Indigenous peoples and human trafficking, to refugees. His work has received numerous accolades, including being twice nominated for a Peabody Award, winning five SOPA Awards and seven Asian Media Awards. During his time at R.AGE, the team has won the Kajai Award twice, and was conferred the United Nations Malaysia Award in 2016.

Elroi worked with Puah Sze Ning (activist Fellow) to focus on Malaysia’s Indigenous Orang Asli communities who are moving out of government resettlement schemes and returning to their customary lands. These lands are often exploited by the state and commercial enterprises for profit, leaving little resources for Indigenous communities.

Elroi’s investigations focused particularly on the Orang Asli struggles against logging companies. He documented the detrimental impact logging has on the local environment – and by extension on the Orang Asli’s access to land, water and food, as well as on the health of community members. Alongside his stories, he worked with community journalists to set up a digital map where various Orang Asli villages shared photos, videos and geospatial evidence of logging activity, to submit as evidence of malpractice to the authorities.