A time has come for me when am so down. For a third time, I have lost very important data that I spent more than six days to collect. I had recorded all on a memory card which is now corrupted.

I tried all tips from professionals but none has worked. one that seemed to work was recording 'reel to reel' on Cool edit. I managed to save three files out of 107 that I had recorded. My head is running round and I feel it may burst if I don't find the solution. I am still optimistic the tech I have engaged will save my day.
OMG

WICKS MEDIA

WICKS MEDIA

WICKS MEDIA

WICKS MEDIA

 MY BIG STORY - With Gary Alfonso,  a seasoned journalist and consultant media manager from S.Africa.

 BY STANLEY ONGWAE/NAIROBI.

From left is William Inganga, Stanley Ongwae, Gary Alfonso(Journalist and Media Management Consultant) and Marie Yambo pose for a photo during a mentorship session at Hilton Hotel, Nairobi. Picture by Dorothy Otieno - Internews.

It was quite an interesting and engaging session. It was that moment when you open your eyes to hear and coke your ears to see!! It all got to do with telling the best story in the best way possible. According to Gary, a great story is usually one that is told about someone who did something for a reason. That is why in major stories that we have ever celebrated, there always has been a central character who does something for a reason. It is all what can be called a Focus Statement.
A focus statement interrogates the story so as to bring out what it is that should be relayed to the audience.
In summary, good stories are about WHO and not WHAT.
Watch this space for My BIG STORY...SOON.

SECOND WEEK IN THE FELLOWSHIP

Beatrice Muthoni, a VVF survivor during the Interview at her home in Dandora Nairobi.

Pic by: Benjamin Kiplagat - Internews in Kenya.

I went out for my first assignment in the Internews Health Journalism Fellowship today.

According to USAID, about 400000 Kenyan women and girls develop dangerous disabilities and complications after giving birth every year. According to the report,the numbers are on the increase. In this first assignment, I am required to produce a four minutes feature story on Vesicle Vaginal Fistula(VVF)that has been singled out as a major complication amongst many women who are not attended well before, during and after giving birth. Today I went to Dandora to meet one of the victims of VVF who has just recovered from the complication. I manged to record an interview with her and now as I finish writing this blog post, I will be embarking on the process of transcribing and scripting.
I have yet another appointment with a VVF expert at the Kenyatta National Hospital(KNH) fistula center. Still on Friday I look forward to hook up with some of the women coming out with cases of VVF and grab interviews with them.

The story will be fully baked for publication by Monday28th. The story is to be aired at Radio Maisha 102.7 Nairobi and 105.3 in Western Kenya and environs.
Lets keep it together in keeping our publics informed about health issues.

it is such an amazing experience to be be with the greatest team of performers at Internews in Nairobi.
on my third day, I must say that the atmosphere I ahve been exposed to is one of its kind that can never be found anywhere.

Stanley Ongwae with Mary Yambo in office at Internews. On the third day we were researching on our story ideas which we will present to a pannel of trainers and mentors on Monday. Photo by William Inganga

I have been working with my colleagues, William Inganga, KNA and Marie Yambo, KBC to come up with story ideas that we will be presenting to a pannel of trainees before we go out to produce short feature stories of about 4-5 minutes by Thursday next week.
We are hoping it will be fun going out there and getting the stories.
just be watching this space.