Bootcamp: Where journalism meets environment (Dec 1 to 15, 2011) was launched by Centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi. This course was designed to produce career-ready candidates with the knowledge, insight and skills to be effective environmental communicators, trained to work in contemporary newsrooms, research and development institutions and INGOs/NGOs.

Mid-career professionals need to understand the developmental challenges of environment and the environmental fallouts of development. This course through a series of lectures, films, discussions, workshops and field visits helps participants understand the scenario in India and South Asia. They would then need to translate this into their own medium of communication in their country context.

This fortnight long course invited participation from young and mid-career working professionals with a minimum Bachelor’s degree from any discipline Universities of India and South Asia. We received applications from about 25 candidates but due to various issues (VISA from South Asian countries and some with personal constraint) 16 participants attended the course.

Attendees were from Nepal, Bhutan, Srilanka and Pakistan. Mid-career journalists (print, radio and television), activist and writer, students who would like to work in the development sector, lawyer, policy research assistant in a leading organisation that works with grassroots on health issues and a structural engineer who is also the lead for Engineers Without Border (Nepal) attended the course.

The course culminated with the students documenting their travel and study.

This is also an exercise through which they learn to work as a team. They choose an editor, copy editors, reporters, photographers, web designers within the class to produce an e-magazine.
Feedback:

This was the first Bootcamp that CSE organised for mid-career professional. We received overwhelming response from participants. They felt, unanimously, that though the field visit was very useful and was indeed an eye opener but it should have been longer as that would have helped them explore and delve into the environmental issues better. They also felt that the course was a great new learning, and it should be taken to different countries in South Asia and beyond.

Liva Shrestha (structural engineer - Nepal) said “For someone without a back ground on environment studies this course has been a great learning”.

Adithya Pradyumna (doctor working on environmental health - India) wrote in his feedback, “Knowledge of the participants should be used within the course framework with discussion on each participant’s core competencies so that mutual benefit sharing can happen”.

Sonia Bhaskar (senior television journalist - India) said, “It is excellent learning. Good opportunity to interact with people from varied background helped widen perspective”.

Zahid Ghiskori’s (journalist working with international print media - Pakistan) remarks were, “More journalists should join the course and it should reach out to people worldwide”.

Dhruba Raj Sapkota (radio journalist - Nepal) enjoyed the climate change lectures.

Ifham Nizam (print journalist – Sri Lanka) said, “The resource library is full of great books and journals. I felt privileged to use it”.

Rathindra Kuruwita (print journalist – Sri Lanka) wrote, “The workshop was very educational for me and I now have a better picture of the issues of the region and I had a lot of fun and met some great people”.

Click here to see: Building Resilience in the Thar desert