Applications open for UAE’s 2020-21 Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism
The fellowship program aims to develop a diverse cohort of journalists who effectively report on behavioral health. Applications will be accepted until the end of April.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism UAE program is accepting applications for its 2020-21 intake of two journalists.
The program is a year-long non-residential fellowship, beginning in September 2020, which aims to develop a diverse cohort of journalists who can effectively report on behavioral health and increase the quality of mental health reporting in the media.
The Carter Center, a US not-for-profit, non-governmental organisation, has awarded annual fellowships to more than 200 journalists around the world since the program’s inception in 1996.
Today, it grants fellowships in the United States, Latin America and the Middle East, including the UAE, where two fellows are appointed each year and overseen by The National.
Applications open for the 2020-21 UAE programme for Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism@CarterFellows @CarterCenter
Learn more here: https://t.co/hpxj8wzC0u
— The National (@TheNationalNews) March 11, 2020
Both UAE fellows for 2020-21 will be assisted by a local advisory board as well as by experts and mentors in the US.
The fellowship offers a cash grant to support the reporting work of the successful candidates.
The 2020-21 fellows will visit the Carter Center in Atlanta in September, when they will discuss their intended reporting work with a community of journalists and mental health experts. They will also return to the US the following year to talk about their experiences and their published work.
For information on how and where to apply, fellowship eligibility and information on current fellows, click here.
Meet the UAE Local Advisory Board
In the UAE, Rosalynn Carter Fellows are supported by a local advisory board who provide advice and mentorship to appointed fellows. Board members include:
Dr. Saliha Afridi is a clinical psychologist and founder and managing director of The LightHouse Arabia. (Photo/The National)
Dr. Saliha Afridi is a clinical psychologist and founder and managing director of The LightHouse Arabia. Dr. Afridi moved from the US to the UAE in 2009 with a mission to improve the region’s mental health. In 2011, she founded The LightHouse Arabia and since then the practice has grown into one of the region’s largest mental health clinics. Dr Afridi is a frequent guest on radio shows and contributes her expertise regularly to print media.
Iman Ben Chaibah started Sail Magazine in Dubai a decade ago. (Photo/The National)
Iman Ben Chaibah started Sail Magazine in Dubai a decade ago to document the social debates and discussions in the UAE and to represent the thought process of young Emiratis to the international reader. She then expanded Sail into book publishing and was recently appointed as the vice president of the Emirates Publishers Association. She was previously a Rosalynn Carter Fellow in 2017-18.
Leonard Stall (Photo/The National)
Leonard Stall is chairman of the communications agency Touchline and is active in the philanthropy and charity sectors. He was behind the launch of Philanthropy Age magazine, a grantee of the Gates Foundation. He also initiated work on an international code of practice for the charity sector, now being led by British Standards Institution. He is a consultant to the Norwegian Nobel Institute.
Dr Justin Thomas (Photo/The National)
Dr. Justin Thomas is an associate professor of psychology at Zayed University in Abu Dhabi and a chartered health psychologist with the British Psychological Society. He is a published author whose most recent book is Psychological Wellbeing in the Gulf States: The New Arabia Felix. Justin writes a regular column for The National and gives lectures and workshops on a variety of topics related to psychology and mental health.