Report Women Network, the alumni body of the Report Women! Female Reporters’ Leadership Programme (FRLP) Fellowship programme has been inaugurated. The fourteen fellows produced in the 2017 edition of the initiative, faculty members and partners, on Friday, 5 October 2018, established the body.

According to the 2017 Fellows, the Report Women Network would help sustain the building capacities of young female journalists, which was commenced with the six-month training mentor ship provided by the Wole Soyinka Center for Investigative Journalism and its partner, Free Press Unlimited (FPU). The network will organize training programmes, collaborate with other local and international bodies to advocate on social issues and help increase the reportage of women issues.

In the course of the programme, the reporters shared amazing transformations that have occurred in their lives, their newsrooms and other spaces they occupy as a result of the fellowship experience.

“I have grown a lot of confidence and become part of the forces influencing change in my newsroom”, Aminat Alhassan of Daily Trust said.

“I have been able to bring myself out before the world more than staying at the background. I speak more publicly now – even heading panels. The FRLP helped a lot in conquering my fears”, disclosed that Nkechi Isaac of Leadership Newspaper.

Ayodele Olofintuade, another fellow said that she finished the book ‘Lakiriboto: The tales of badly behaved women’, which she has been working on for years. Her book is one that tells the story of women and the challenges they go through in the society as a result of patriarchy.

A step-up training preceded the inauguration for the fellows on Thursday, 4th and Friday 5th October 2018. The sessions were facilitated by Eugenia Abu, veteran broadcaster and media consultant; Lekan Otufodunrin, Online Editor at The Nation Newspaper; Bethel Tsegaye, Programme Coordinator with Free Press Unlimited; Motunrayo Alaka, WSCIJ Coordinator; and Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, Executive Director of Women Advocate Research and Documentation Centre (WARDC).

From mentoring and building the capacities of interns in their various newsrooms, to empowering and expanding the knowledge of young females in schools about their potentials, to promoting the rights of female persons, to dealing with abuse, the WSCIJ Female Reporters’ Leadership Programme (FRLP) Fellowship programme alumni are busy changing lives.