Fighting Disease: South Africa

Building Awareness

From 2004 to 2011, The Carter Center, – in partnership with the University of Witwatersrand – and later, the South African Depression & Anxiety Group, awarded 14 fellowships to South African journalists through the Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism. The goal was to help the South African people defeat myths and stigma surrounding mental illness by providing local journalists with the tools they need to bring important mental health issues to light in their communities.

The Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism currently provide stipends and expert training to journalists from the United States and Romania to report on topics related to mental health or mental illnesses. The primary goal of the fellowship program is to increase accurate reporting on mental health issues and decrease incorrect, stereotypical information.

The South African fellows have covered a variety of topics from exploring the impact of trauma on the mental health of South African police officers to exploring stigma against mental illnesses in South Africa.

In 2011, the program was successfully transferred to the South African Depression & Anxiety Group, through support from Pfizer, S.A. This transition has been the goal of the program from the beginning and is the second successful establishment (after New Zealand) of a self-sustaining mental health journalism fellowship program initiated by The Carter Center. The Carter Center's involvement with mental health journalism in South Africa concluded with a workshop in Johannesburg in April 2011 for journalists from across the country on covering mental health issues.

Meet South African Rosalynn Carter Mental Health Journalism Fellows Tamar Kahn and Marion Scher.

Watch the video slideshow: Rosalynn Carter Fellows Build Hope in South Africa >