East Africa Project: Contribute to Great Independent Journalism
posted at 9:58 pm
on Jan. 20, 2008
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Just before Christmas, I made a donation to the East Africa Project during its formation stage. Now that it’s underway I thought I’d suggest it as a worthy cause for you to support as well.
In a nutshell, this is a team of intrepid (by which I mean young and working cheaply) journalists, who will be exploring issues of water scarcity and access to water from on the ground in Ethiopia and Kenya. Here’s the group:
So far, they’ve posted maps, audio slideshows, and blog posts about their arrival. Once they get over jet lag, they’ll start filing dispatches about the heart of the subject matter, which I quote from the Pulitzer site thusly:
“Water scarcity in East Africa is fueling conflict and thwarting development while growing in step with local populations and rising global temperatures. Though the actions of industrialized nations are primarily responsible for global warming, its effects are being felt most heavily in less developed regions of the world such as East Africa, where climate change can be tied to detrimental environmental issues such as droughts and melting snowcaps.”
The East Africa Project is one of several undertakings of the three-year-old Common Language Project, and is sponsored in part by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting—though the bulk of their funding still comes form direct reader support. I am a big fan of independent journalism, and this is as independent as it gets. If you’re interested in donating (could be as little as $5), just click here. Your donation will have a multiplying effect, as the more they can learn and report on, the more likely it is to come to the attention of others. At the very least, they deserve a link from a prominent blogger such as yourself. 
