Bertha Challenge Fellowships 2021 for Activists and Investigative Journalists

Publish Date: Jun 20, 2021

Deadline: Jul 03, 2021

THE BERTHA CHALLENGE

Fellowships for Activists and Investigative Journalists

Bertha Foundation is excited to launch the next Bertha Challenge: an opportunity for activists and investigative journalists to spend a year producing a body of work that responds to one pressing social justice challenge. Successful applicants will receive non-residential paid Fellowships and project budgets to work independently and together to:

The third Bertha Challenge will begin in January 2022 with a focus on water, specifically supporting Bertha Fellows to answer the following question:

Applications open on 17 May 2021 and close on 3 July 2021. Anyone meeting the selection criteria may apply.

Why we’re Choosing to Focus on Water

An International Emergency

All 7.8 billion of us need water. We need it to drink, to produce food, to power industry; we use it to generate electricity, to manage our waste, and in countless other activities, every minute of every day, across our entire planet. We use about 10 billion tons of fresh water daily. 

"While nearly 70% of the world is covered by water, only 2.5% of it is fresh. The rest is saline and ocean-based. Even then, just 1% of our freshwater is easily accessible, with much of it trapped in glaciers and snowfields. In essence, only 0.007% of the planet's water is available to fuel and feed people."

The amount of water we have access to is shrinking and our population is growing - particularly in parts of the Global South where water is running out the fastest. It’s estimated that in just 10 years, global water demand could outstrip supply by 40%. Already over one billion people in developing countries don’t have access to clean drinking water, with 2.7 billion experiencing water scarcity at least one month a year.

Ten years ago the United Nations recognized clean drinking water and sanitation as essential to the realization of all human rights. Yet, the World Health Organization estimates some two billion of us use water contaminated by faeces and in four years from now, half of the world’s population will live in water-stressed areas.

Scarcity of water has the greatest impact on the lives of women. UNICEF has calculated that women and girls spend 200 million hours a day collecting water. This makes them more susceptible to risks ranging from illness to sexual assault while travelling long distances to find clean water and sanitation facilities.

Our limited water supplies are increasingly polluted. Every day, two million tons of sewage and industrial and agricultural waste are discharged into the world’s water and about eight million metric tonnes of plastic ends up in the sea. The accelerated melting of sea ice could release one trillion plastic particles into our water system in the coming years - 200 times the amount of plastic already found in the ocean.

Meanwhile, water is treated as a commodity by states and corporations. Industry is responsible for 22% of global water consumption - which is often used to produce non-essential goods for export while local people don’t have enough water to meet basic needs.

To find the causes of and solutions to this crisis, we must go not only to the villages and cities running out of water, but to the corridors of power. Our drastically shrinking water supply is directly linked to unchecked capitalism, rapid growth and political power.

For more information click "LINK TO ORIGINAL" below.

Further Official Information

Link to Original

Similar Opportunities


Disciplines

Communication Studies

Journalism

Media

Social Media

Opportunity Types

Fellowships

Eligible Countries

International