Empowering female journalist from Malawi is awarded the JHR/Fisher Fellowship through Massey College

In Malawi, journalism is a male dominated profession; women rarely rise to the top, but Zodiak Radio’s Tereza Ndanga is one woman who won’t let stereotypes or misconceptions about female journalists stand in her way.

“Sometimes it’s difficult to win people’s trust when you are a female journalist. They think male journalists are better. I have had to prove myself to win their trust.”

In April Ndanga was awarded the prestigious Fisher fellowship, coordinated through a partnership between JHR and Massey College. She will arrive in September 2012 to spend a year living and studying in Canada.

Ndanga has also scooped eight awards during her five year career in journalism, including the coveted 2010 CNN/Multichoice Health and Medical Reporting Award for a story she did about a clinical officer who put HIV positive people on a lethal cancer trial without their consent. More recently, she was honored with two NAMISA awards, including Malawi’s Best Investigative Journalist for 2012.

Ndanga’s initial interest in journalism began in primary school.  “I wanted to help change people’s lives in a positive way,” she says. “I thought journalism would help me achieve this.”

In 2007, Ndanga graduated from Malawi Polytechnic, a constituent college of the University of Malawi with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism. She soon began working as a reporter for Zodiak, and in 2010, she was promoted to Editor responsible for Radio.

Her passion for telling stories is driven by her desire to share information and create awareness.