The African Story Challenge (TASC) was a project of awards and grants set up to spur innovative multimedia storytelling and reporting by African journalists. The aim was to encourage better policies and greater public engagement on general issues that matter to Africans which usually go unreported. During a two-year run (March 2013-March 2015), the project awarded 103 grants to African journalists which were worth more than $500,000. This resulted in almost 300 in-depth and innovative stories circulated in major media across Africa. Below is a showcase of some of the stories and categories developed around the themes of Agriculture, Health, Business and Technology.
Health: Diseases, Prevention, and Treatment
1st Place-South Africa: Coughing up for Gold
An in-depth, multi-media story that looks at the suffering of former mine workers in South Africa who suffer from TB & Silicosis after working in the mining industry for many years.
2nd Place-South Africa: Shots in the dark? Vaccinations in South Africa
An investigation into vaccine stock-outs and poor storage in major cities from Gauteng to Mpumalanga, in South Africa
3rd Place-Cameroon: Bad roads keeps heart patients from care
This story is an investigation into the impact of non-health infrastructure (in this case roads) on access to quality health care for heart patients in Cameroon.
See all the Diseases: Prevention and Treatment stories
Business and Technology
1st Place-Nigeria: The App that saved 1000 lives
A story about how technology was used to track government funds released to communities affected by lead poisoning in Bagega, Nigeria
2nd Place-Nigeria: Africa’s “Dollar-a-day” Schools
A story about the exponential growth of low-cost private schools in cities throughout Africa, highlighting increased investor interest in the low-cost education sector
3rd Place-Uganda: The trials of cross-border traders
An investigation into cross-border trade in East Africa, through the experience of a Ugandan egg trader.
See all the Business and Technology stories
Agriculture and Food Security
1st Place-Ghana: Phone farming: How SMS is changing agriculture in Ghana
The story Investigates how simple SMS technology is transforming the lives of poor rural farmers and its potential to change Ghana’s agricultural sector. Many hitherto poor farmers are now sending their children to school, building modern houses, and life generally better for those who have discovered and signed on to the technology.
2nd Place-South Africa: Crumbs of the breadbasket – inequalities in SA agriculture
Thanks entirely to its history of colonisation, segregation and development along racial lines, South Africa has decimated its small-scale farming class. It’s the sector of society that, everywhere else in Sub-Saharan Africa, provides relative food security as well as a collective 60 percent of the labour force. This story explores the inequalities in S.A’s agriculture sector
3rd Place-Somalia: Farming amidst fighting
Somalia is said to be Africa’s most ‘troubled child.’ It is known for all the wrong reasons; hunger, drought, internal conflicts and terror attacks. But there is a positive side of Somalia, that is, large scale farming that could boost the war torn country’s economy. This is the untold story of Somalia.
See all the Agriculture and Food Security stories
Read more African stories from these other categories:
Politics: Read all the latest stories developing from Africa’s charged-up political arena
Crime: Crime happens every day. Get all the latest scoop on gripping crime stories from all across Africa
Timeless: Get inside the stories that stay relevant across ages and generations, learn how they unfold and keep abreast of the recent developments
Profile: Prominent personalities across Africa that are inspiring or otherwise; so long as they are considered relevant in some way.
Life and Style: Africa has a rich and unique lifestyle, get inside one of the most diverse continents on the planet and see how the current wave of change is affecting it.
Sports: Africa is fast developing her sporting capabilities. Get informed on the latest developments in this ever dynamic category.
Entertainment: You can’t take away entertainment from any society rather what you see is ever-changing transformation. Get all the scoops on the unveiling African entertainment industry.
Nature: No other continent is home to nature than Africa; with a wide range of safaris, games and amazing geography, you stand to be amazed at what you can find.
Education: Education in Africa has faced many challenges but while the worst phase has passed, you can follow latest events and stories happening in this sector.
Culture: The African culture is so diverse that there were a good number of interesting stories coming into this category.
Religion: Africa is a very religious continent and the diversity of various beliefs thriving within the continent made this one of the most interesting categories.
Travel: Let the stories on this page take you on a journey to the African continent and explore amazing wonders of nature.
The Story Challenge was a project by the African Media Initiative (AMI), the continent’s largest association of media owners and operators, in partnership with the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ).
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