Hanna Ingber Win could hardly believe the impact of an article she wrote for the Cape Times about a project to provide South Africans living in shacks with waterproof sleeping bags. Phone calls from concerned citizens who wanted to donate money and learn how to help poured into the paper.

“It felt great to have a part in the process,” says Win, a print journalism master’s degree candidate. “But it was shocking that so many South Africans had no idea there were people freezing every night in shacks. Many of the shacks were right off the road and they seemed impossible to ignore.”

Win has made a habit of using her reporting and writing to address international troubles. She spent a year in Burma writing for a government-regulated newspaper so that she could learn firsthand what it’s like to live under a military dictatorship and get residents’ personal accounts of oppression. She then lived in Thailand for eight months and developed working relationships with Burmese exiles.

The value of these contacts became all too clear in late 2007 when the Burmese government began a violent crackdown on peaceful protests. The government tried to control all information coming out of Burma, but it didn’t stop Win’s contacts from risking their lives to send her photographs and personal accounts of the violence. Win alerted the world by reporting their stories in the Washington Post and on National Public Radio as well as other media outlets.

“I can be a voice for people who wouldn’t otherwise have an opportunity to tell their story,” she says. “At the end of the day, that’s why I’m in journalism.”

Win’s NPR piece
Washingtonpost.com article