That's a very good question.
One of the things we found to be absolutely critical in our training process is to talk to journalists about the importance of talking to those directly affected and who are on the front lines of the experiences that they're covering.
I'll give you an example. The last time I was in Sierra Leone, I read three different stories about the epidemic of teen pregnancy, in part due to rape from ex-combatants, that was breaking out in schools across the country. There was not a single teenage girl quoted in any of these stories. I said to the trainers that we need to work on making sure that these journalists understand the need to talk to the people directly affected by these problems so that these stories are informed by their perspectives, first and foremost.
We've developed a method of training whereby the number one principle is the participatory approach to journalism training, which means talking to those who are directly affected, first, and in a manner that is respectful of both their privacy and their human rights.
Obviously, we are in the business of first doing no harm. The goal is to ensure that these voices are out there, that these issues are told, that there's a human face on these issues, that people start to care about them, and that they're not simply statistics but real, lived tragedies. Then the community in question gathers around to decide that they need to own this problem and do something about it.
Time and again, we found that happened because another key part of our training is empowerment, by which we mean not only ensuring that those voices have sufficient time to be either voiced or reported upon, covered, but also engaging authorities both in an understanding of their legal obligations in the situation in question and in a public, constructive discussion on how best to resolve the problem.
We don't just encourage our journalists to publish rants about teen pregnancy or child brides, or whatever it might be. We encourage our journalists to propose solutions and actually take on that leadership role in an environment where governments are very insecure and often don't actually know what the appropriate solution might be out there in society and appreciate the journalists showing that leadership and providing a constructive element of how best to engage the civil society and government in resolving this problem.
We've seen time and again that a locally credible journalist covers a story, a local issue is aired, and local authorities take on that issue as their responsibility and deal with the problem, and then we have local government working for their local constituents on issues of child welfare.
I hope that gives you an example.