Around the world, young children are the face of a historic crisis of refugees and migration. How can news professionals worldwide cover migrant children and families with greater knowledge, depth, and skills?
War, conflict, persecution – almost seventy million people worldwide have been driven from their homes, and more than half of them are children.
Reporting on child refugees and migrants means not just dealing with images of upheaval but with children’s early brain development, emotional and cognitive growth, socialization, academic potential and economic promise.
Covering the impact of threat, displacement and family separation on millions of children in the first years of life – whether in the Americas, the Mideast and Africa, Europe or South Asia – presents a profound challenge to journalists.
To prepare news professionals worldwide to cover refugee and migrant children and families with greater knowledge, depth, and skills, the Dart Center hosts a four-day journalism training workshop. The Jacobs Foundation has helped to fund this workshop. It corresponds with our thematic priority “Early Childhood”, with which we help to formulate comprehensive early education policies in Europe.
28 journalists from 12 countries have been selected to participate in this workshop held at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York from September 19 till 22. These journalists are brought together with internationally-recognized scientists, policy experts, and practitioners from the field of early childhood development to discuss the effects of trauma on developing brains, the special early-childhood issues raised by displacement and family separation, and evidence-based interventions that support nurturing care amid adversity.