Kenya

When I was 17, I wrote some of my first articles. I would give them to my Mum to read, and she was really impressed by my writing. She always told me to submit it to local newspapers to publish, but I was too afraid to do it. My excuse was simple: I am not a guru of all knowledge or experiences.

Fast forward to 2011: I was working as a radio copywriter at East Africa’s leading media house. And I got fed up of talking to editors about how lacking their content was. I wrote and sent stories to editors who read them, and I even started email debates on the content of the stories. But they would never publish my work. I even spoke to the TV news editors, asking them to give me a chance. I shot my first TV news story, but never got another chance to work on more stories.

I got frustrated and stifled. I realized my era in the advertising world was up. I was looking to start off as journalist on fire! No training! Just the passion and hunger to tell positive solution-oriented journalism. And a friend introduced me to a news site, Global Press Institute.

I got Cristi Hegranes’ email and like they say… the rest was…well… a trailblazing blast into a future of journalism. I’ve been working slightly over a year and a half as a journalist. And there is no going back!