Two talented journalists start ITM’s journalist-in-residence programme

This year marks the sixth annual journalist-in-residence programme at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp (ITM) and two talented journalists have been invited to the city. The programme offers journalists from Africa, Asia and Latin America the opportunity of taking a deep dive into their subject(s) of choice relating to tropical diseases and other tropical issues in international health. The initiative is part of ITM’s scientific capacity-building programme in developing countries and is financed by the Belgian Directorate-General for Development (DGD).

Rhoda Odhiambo is a multimedia health and science journalist from Kenya. She is interested in working on topics such as infectious diseases, human rights, reproductive health, and the law and stories of minority groups. During her stay at ITM she will be focusing on hiv and PrEP and resistance to TB medicines.

Working with the BBC, Rhoda produces health and science content for a pan-African show, Life Clinic. The platform was created by the BBC to tell health and science stories not only for its African audience, but for the world at large. She also produces a discussion programme, Talk It Out that highlights certain health topics that are considered taboo by society, especially in Africa.

Before joining the BBC, Rhoda worked at the Star Newspaper and DW creating content on health, science and human rights.

Rhoda is currently pursuing her Bachelor's degree in Political Science at the University of Nairobi.

Munyaradzi Makoni is a journalist based in Cape Town, South Africa, with more than 10 years of experience working in journalism and media consultancy. He likes to write about topics such as agriculture, climate change, health, higher education, sustainable development, and science in general. At ITM, Munya will mainly focus on chikungunya.

Munyaradzi’s work has appeared in, amongst others, Hakai magazine, Intellectual Property Watch, Inter Press Service, Mongabay, Nature, Nature Index, Physics World, Science, SciDev.net, The Lancet, Thomson Reuters Foundation, and University World News.

In 2012 Munyaradzi was Canada’s International Development Research Centre-Research Africa science journalism fellow.