The Rwanda Initiative is bringing more Rwandan journalists to Canada to study journalism at Carleton University or take part in short-term media internships with Canadian news organizations.
The participants include newspaper editors, reporters, recent graduates and current students from the journalism school at the National University of Rwanda.
In partnership with New College at the University of Toronto, the Metroland Media Group, Embassy newspaper in Ottawa, Carleton University and potentially other media organizations, the Rwanda Initiative will bring six Rwandan journalists to Canada in the coming months to spend three months each as journalism interns. Another two Rwandan journalists have joined Carleton’s master of journalism program. And a Rwandan journalism student who was selected to participate in a major radio documentary festival will be able to attend because of the Rwanda Initiative.
“Up to now the primary focus of the Rwanda Initiative project has been to take Canadian journalists to Rwanda to contribute to building the capacity of the media in a country where journalism was decimated by the 1994 genocide,” said Carleton journalism professor Allan Thompson, the director of the Rwanda Initiative, a partnership between Carleton’s journalism school and its counterpart in Rwanda. “Now we are moving aggressively in a new direction by bringing more and more Rwandan journalists to Canada to study and train.”
In this phase of the program, four of the interns will be placed in Toronto, where they will live in residence at New College. They will work at least four days a week with Toronto Community News, a Metroland Media Group company which publishes community newspapers in Toronto. Interns will also be expected to spend at least one day a week interacting with students and faculty in New College’s African Studies program.
Two of the interns will be placed in Ottawa, where they will work with Embassy, a weekly newspaper that serves as the Wednesday edition of the Hill Times, the best-read political newspaper in Canada. Embassy covers the inside world of Canadian federal politics but also delves more deeply into Canadian foreign policy. The Ottawa-based interns will also interact with students at Carleton’s journalism school and the new African Studies program.
The new entrants to Carleton’s Master of Journalism program are:
- Arthur Asiimwe, who was the Reuters news agency correspondent in Rwanda;
- Ignatius Kabagambe, who is on leave from his position as managing director of the New Times, Rwanda’s English-language daily newspaper.
The six interns who have been selected to come to Canada for three months of training include:
- Charles Kabonero, editor of Umuseso and Newsline and owner of the Rwandan Independent Media Group, who is scheduled to take up an internship this fall at Embassy;
- George Muhinda, is a reporter with the New Times, currently reporting for the paper from the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, in Arusha, Tanzania. Muhinda will be based in Toronto this winter as an intern with Metroland;
- Fred Mwasa, is a copy editor with the Rwanda News Agency, which comprises a newswire and tri-monthly newspaper Grands Lacs Hebdo. He will take up an internship at Embassy this winter.
- Gilbert Ndikubwayezu, who is in his final year in the journalism program at the National University of Rwanda, is also a reporter with Radio Salus and will be based in Toronto starting in October;
- Astrida Uwera, also a graduate of the journalism program at NUR, is a producer with TV Rwanda and also a freelance writer. She started her position as an intern at Metroland on Sept. 24.
- Louise Umutoni, is a reporter with the newspaper Focus, in Kigali and is also a graduate of the National University of Rwanda. She will be based in Toronto early in 2008 and will intern at Metroland.
In addition, the Rwanda Initiative will assist Prudent Nsengiyumva, a second-year journalism student at the National University of Rwanda who also works with Radio Salus. One of his documentaries was selected as part of the Third Coast International Audio Festival. The Rwanda Initiative is helping Prudent to attend the festival in Chicago, in October and to do a short internship in Canada.
The Rwanda Initiative is a partnership between the School of Journalism and Communication at the National University of Rwanda, in Butare, and its counterpart at Carleton University. The project was launched in January 2006, by Allan Thompson, a journalism professor at Carleton University and former Toronto Star reporter. The internship in Canada for Rwandan journalists is co-funded by former Toronto Star publisher John Honderich and Carleton University. It marks a new phase in the Rwanda Initiative project, which has been working since 2006 to build the capacity of the media in Rwanda by sending journalism teachers and media interns to the central African country. From now on, more and more Rwandan journalists will come to Canada for training.
The Rwanda Initiative has sent more than 75 Canadians to Rwanda to teach journalism at the university, work as media interns with news organizations in Rwanda or as media trainers in Rwanda’s newsrooms. The initial focus was a visiting lecturer program at the National University of Rwanda, through which Carleton provided journalism educators and senior journalists as professors to fill the gaps in the teaching staff at the National University. In January, the Rwanda Initiative also began providing visiting lecturers to the new Great Lakes Media Centre in Kigali, a night school for working journalists.
From the beginning, one of the primary objectives of the project has been to address the shortage of journalism educators in Rwanda, a country where the media sector, while devastated by the 1994 genocide, also remains key to the post-genocide reconstruction of the country. Another key priority is raising levels of professionalism in the Rwandan media. Both objectives will be served by bringing Rwandan journalists to Canada for training.
This new media internship program in Canada will eventually help many young Rwandan journalists to improve their skills by spending time in Canadian newsrooms. In a pilot project last year, Ugandan journalist Gaaki Kigambo, a former Sunday Editor at the New Times in Kigali, did an internship at Toronto Community News, laying the groundwork for this new program. Kigambo has also joined Carleton’s MJ program this month. And this past summer, Rwandan journalist Collin Haba, who is currently in the second year of Carleton’s Master of Journalism program, worked as an intern at Metroland’s Toronto Community News and at the Hamilton Spectator.
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For more information:
Prof. Allan Thompson
School of Journalism and Communication
Carleton University
613-520-2600 ext. 7439
Mobile: 613-799-1791
allan_thompson@carleton.ca
Thursday, October 9, 2008 in News Releases
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