Little by Little, Week by Week
     by Evelyn Kiapi Matsamura
My name is Evelyn Kiapi Matsamura, an independent female Ugandan journalist based in Kampala...

Microfinance Mends Lives Washed Away by Tsunami
     by Chandani Jayatilleke
C handani Jayatilleke started her journalistic career in 1994 as a business reporter with the Colombo-based Sunday Island. Later she moved on to the country's largest newspaper publishing institution, widely known as...

Rare Insights Into Poor People's Bank
     by Christina Scott
Christina Scott is a South African journalist and broadcaster who was commissioned last year to write the book Nelson Mandela: Force for Freedom...

Rare Insights Into Poor People's Bank by Christina Scott, South Africa.

Christina Scott is a South African journalist and broadcaster who was commissioned last year to write the book Nelson Mandela: Force for Freedom, published by André Deutsch.
In the dying years of apartheid, the diminutive reporter was part of the alternative press in the war-torn province of KwaZulu-Natal, where her reporting about hit squads and other state-sanctioned violence led to death threats against her, police harassment, assault, abuse and several efforts at deportation.

In the year of South Africa's first-ever democratic elections she moved to Johannesburg to participate in the transformation of the South African Broadcasting Corporation television and radio as it worked to abandon its long history as a government mouthpiece.

During the hectic years of South Africa's young democracy Christina presented and produced live current affairs shows on several national radio stations as well as researching, presenting and producing several television programmes.

She became interested in science in Africa, a generally ignored topic, and initiated two weekly science slots - one on the national English-language radio station SAfm and the other on the daily morning television programme Morning Live, for which she won several awards and a Caltech fellowship.

She now edits and writes for the Science and Development Network website in London and is contributing editor for ScienceinAfrica.com, among other duties.

Christina is a late-bloomer when it comes to reporting on financial issues, beginning after she she started attending weekly seminars by researchers at the University of Cape Town. They don't mind if she sometimes counts on her fingers, as long as she checks the facts carefully.

She lives in Cape Town with her three children and her husband, who is an economist - an arrangement she strongly recommends for any journalist trying to report on any issue involving numbers.

Microfinance Mends Lives Washed Away by Tsunami by Chandani Jayatilleke, Sri Lanka

C handani Jayatilleke started her journalistic career in 1994 as a business reporter with the Colombo-based Sunday Island. Later she moved on to the country's largest newspaper publishing institution, widely known as Lake House, and was hired to work as a news and business reporter for its flagship newspaper, the Daily News.

However, she continued to write feature articles in a wide range of subjects, from children, women, tourism, health, environment, to arts and film.

After a few years, she was promoted to the post of business editor of the Daily News. During this time she took initiative to expand the business news section of the paper.

Having worked in that capacity for five years, she joined the feature department of the same newspaper. Her forte then was development journalism. She travelled to many parts of the country, including the war-affected north and east, to write about various development activities and peoples' woes.

She has also widely travelled internationally, including for training by various prestigious institutions around the world, such as Reuters, Panos Asia, the European Journalism School in the Netherlands, and others in London and Nepal.

To her credit, she has covered many exclusive events, international conferences and seminars, including an official overseas visit of the President of Sri Lanka.

Currently, she works as an independent feature writer and a communications consultant in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Little by Little, Week by Week by Evelyn Kiapi Matsamura, Uganda

My name is Evelyn Kiapi Matsamura, an independent female Ugandan journalist based in Kampala. I am a features writer with a specialty in development communication issues, with particular emphasis on the Millennuim Development Goals and the role we as the media can play in trying to achieve these targets in a developing country like Uganda.

I have been practicing journalism since my first year studying for a bachelors degree in Mass Communication at Makerere University in 1997.

After I completed my degree in 2000, I worked for The Monitor, now called Daily Monitor, where I served in different capacities from stringer to retained correspondent, sub-editor and, later, product editor. I left The Monitor in 2004 in pursuit of a more challenging journalism career, one that's independent but also purposeful. And now I think I am on the right track. I have written for several publications, both local and international, and been a steady correspondent for Inter Press Service since December 2002. I must say the experience with IPS has been very rich and rewarding. Not only have I realised the importance of communicating for development, but also that the role a journalist plays can change lives for the better.

I have also conducted media research for the Population Reference Bureau in Washington, and am currently working on another, Women and Politics in East Africa, for the African Woman and Child Feature Service in Nairobi, Kenya.

I have attended several short journalism courses on current issues like globalisation, the MDGs, HIV/AIDS, gender and human rights -- all of which have broadened my views on how to report better. I believe that the process of learning never ends and whichever opportunity one gets to learn something new, one must take it up. I believe in hard work and commitment and I believe this award is the fruit of believing in myself and God.

My joys? I love to write a good feature story, take some time alone to think, and having a good laugh.