Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

The Bettina Fund: Transforming women's careers

13/01/2022

Eleven women who participated in the inaugural Bettina Fund - Women in Media Leadership programme say it will transform their careers as they have gained confidence to own their career development paths.

The three-month programme launched in Kenya in September 2021 aims to help women working in the media overcome barriers in newsrooms and navigate an industry that remains dominated by men.

This is achieved through one to one weekly sessions with mentors and a series of webinars with high profile female media managers, entrepreneurs and senior journalists.

I have grown my net-worth, says course participant, Hellen Shikanda, Health and Science Reporter, Nation Media Group. Now, I believe that leaders can be shaped. I have realised sometimes it takes close interaction with a leader to be one.

Diverse recruitment The women participating in the programmes were drawn from different areas of Kenyan media; the traditional legacy platforms of print and broadcast to digital start-ups.

The virtual nature of this programme caused by restrictions due to the pandemic benefitted journalists based outside the capital Nairobi. Travel costs and time often prohibit people travelling for face-to-face training but because every activity had to be done online the foundation was able to recruit participants from across Kenya with all women enjoying access to the same benefits.

In their feedback on the programme, mentees say the weekly sessions with mentors- all distinguished Kenyan women in the media - increased their confidence through improving personal skills and developing leadership competencies.

The webinars and mentor sessions provided a safe space for them to discuss openly their ambitions and provided guidance on how to overcome challenges in the workplace and as media entrepreneurs.

The mentees also completed bespoke e-learning courses developed by the Thomson Foundation.

Networking The programme ticks all the boxes of a programme designed to better equip young journalists with the nitty-gritty needed in their field of practice, says reporter and course participant Hellen Shikanda.

Ms Shikanda's mentor was Pamella Makotsi Sittoni, the first woman to hold the position of executive editor and managing editor of the Daily Nation at the Nation Media Group.

In 2017 she was named the Laureate of the Women in News Editorial Leadership Award for Sub-Saharan Africa by the World Association of Newspapers (WAN-IFRA).

She emphasises the importance of mentoring female journalists as a way of bridging the gender gap in media organisations.

The only way to challenge the gender disparity in media leadership is by creating a pipeline of women journalists with the right skills to take up senior positions, says Ms Sittoni. Through the Bettina Fund mentorship, we hope our colleagues will take the lessons we learned and avoid our mistakes, to get to the top faster and better prepared.

Florence Chepkorir, a news editor from Nakuru - a city north west of Nairobi in the Great Rift Valley; says the mentorship program enriched her professional network and taught her practical skills to advance her career. She now feels more confident to pursue opportunities in the media.

Getting to interact with other women journalists was awesome, she says. It helped me appreciate the fact that I am not the only one facing challenges specific to women in the newsroom. This has helped me put on a brave face, focus and endeavour to achieve the best in my career.

Empowering women in the workplace

The Bettina Fund has been set up by the Thomson Foundation in memory of its Director of Development Bettina Peters who died in 2020. Bettina was a tireless advocate for equality in the media. The aim is to empower women to take on senior roles in media organisations and build a sustainable network of women journalists and media professionals.

For the inaugural programme the foundation teamed up with the Baraza Media Lab, an initiative working to promote a strong and diverse media ecosystem from its collaborative space in Nairobi.

The aim is to extend the programme to include other countries in East Africa and replicate in other regions of the world.

The mentor and mentee relationship

-- Play

-- --

-- Play

-- --

-- Play

-- --

-- Play

-- --

Related content

The Bettina Fund: Empowering women in media

Women in Media: Confronting the confidence gap

When diversity in newsrooms and leadership is not enough

Berna Namata East Africa Programmes Manager

Berna is Thomson Foundations East Africa Programmes Manager. Her main role is in the business development and promotion of our e-learning platform, Journalism Now.

Explore our projects across the globe
LINK: http://www.thomsonfoundation.org/latest/the-bettina-fund-transforming-...
See more stories from thompsonfoundation

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

04/08/2026

Dalet Announces Commercial Availability of Dalia, Bringing Media-Aware Agentic AI to Enterprise Productions

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

04/07/2026

Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in Dolby Cinemas Across Japan, Presented in Dolby Atmos and Dolby ...

April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...

01/06/2026

Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026

January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026 Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...

19/05/2026

Young Journalist' finalists visit London for training and networking

The winner of Thomson Foundation's Young Journalist of the Year 2025, Tracy Bonareri Onchoke, and runner up Wangu Kanuri enjoyed a three-day trip to London ...

19/05/2026

Cisco and USGA Announce Multiyear Partnership Extension

Cisco and the USGA have announced a multiyear extension of their partnership, which began in 2018. Cisco serves as the Official Technology Partner of the USGA, ...

19/05/2026

Urban Edge Network and Spiideo Partner to Enhance NAIA Sports Streaming

Urban Edge Network (UEN), a streaming platform for NAIA sports, has announced a partnership with Spiideo to provide streaming and production tools to UEN's ...

19/05/2026

Warner Bros. Discovery Announces Expanded Roland-Garros 2026 Coverage

Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) will provide live coverage of all 900 Roland-Garros matches across its platforms beginning with qualifiers on May 18. In Europe, 21...

19/05/2026

Tubi Launches FIFA World Cup 2026 FOX Hub

Tubi, Fox Corporation's free streaming service, has announced the launch of the FIFA World Cup 2026 FOX Hub, a dedicated destination for World Cup programmi...

19/05/2026

Telefnica and Sony Conduct 5G mmWave Broadcast Trial at Movistar Arena

Telef nica, in collaboration with Sony, has conducted a 5G connectivity trial at the Movistar Arena in Spain using the 26 GHz millimetre wave (mmWave) band. The...

19/05/2026

Ross Production Services Integrates Calrec Argo M into New Hypermax-1 Truck

Ross Production Services (RPS) has installed a Calrec Argo M console into its new Hypermax-1 remote production truck, replacing one of three Argo S consoles pre...

19/05/2026

Panasonic Projector and Display Acquires HIVE Media Control

Panasonic Projector and Display Corporation has announced the acquisition of 100% of the shares of UK-based media technology company Hive Media Control Ltd. (HI...

19/05/2026

Globecast Completes Major Renovation of Singapore Facility

Globecast has announced the completion of a nine-month renovation of its Singapore facility, converting it from a traditional linear broadcast operation into a ...

19/05/2026

Grass Valley Signs Three-Year Enterprise Agreement with Phoenix Broadcast Solutions

Grass Valley has announced a three-year enterprise agreement with Phoenix Broadc...

19/05/2026

Watch Brasil Selects Bitmovin for Streaming Player, Encoder, and Observability

Bitmovin has announced that Watch Brasil, a streaming platform operating across Brazil and Europe since 2018, has replaced its legacy systems with Bitmovin'...

19/05/2026

Ateme and Akamai Power Nepal Premier League Live Streaming

Ateme has announced the migration of Dish Home Nepal's Nepal Premier League (NPL) streaming infrastructure to Ateme's TITAN Live solution deployed on Ak...

19/05/2026

CMSI Supports ESPNs NCAA Gymnastics Championships Coverage

CMSI provided workflow, media management, and HDR support for ESPN during coverage of the NCAA Gymnastics Semifinals and Championships. The company supported fi...

19/05/2026

SVG Rewind: TGLs SmartPin Cam Offers a Whole New Perspective for Golf

In advance of this year's Sports Emmy Awards, SVG is taking a deep dive into the six production-technologies nominated for this year's George Wensel Tec...

19/05/2026

SVG Rewind: FOX IndyCar Takes In-Car AR Graphics to New Heights

In advance of this year's Sports Emmy Awards, SVG is taking a deep dive into the six production-technologies nominated for this year's George Wensel Tec...

19/05/2026

NEP Supershooter 11 and 65 Roll Out To Meet Different Production Needs

Featuring a fully IP infrastructure, Supershooter 11 is intended for large-scale events. Enabling remote and distributed workflows, Supershooter 65 joins the RE...

19/05/2026

Boots Riley Unpacks His Vision of Power, Style, and Time at Sundance Institute's I Love Boosters Denver Screening

By Jessica Herndon The line wrapped around the building outside Denver's La...

19/05/2026

Building a More Trusted Podcast Experience for Creators and Listeners

Podcasting continues to evolve, and so does Spotify. As we build what comes next, one thing remains constant: This is a medium built on connection. It lives in ...

19/05/2026

GC Audio & Looptrotter announce the Emperor Signature Cartridge

Popular design joins Inherit cartridge line-up When GC Audio introduced their modular Inherit system, it was available with a selection of the company's...

19/05/2026

oeksound introduce Soothe3

Resonance-suppression plug-in gets ground-up rebuild Following on from its 10-year anniversary, oeksound's flagship plug-in has just reached its third m...

19/05/2026

Novation unveil the FLKey 2

Dedicated FL Studio controller keyboard range refreshed Novation's dedicated FL Studio controller family has just been upgraded, with four new models ex...

19/05/2026

Rohde & schwarz strengthens its in-vehicle networks test portfolio with the launch of new ASA-ML compliance solution

Rohde & schwarz strengthens its in-vehicle networks test portfolio with the laun...

19/05/2026

Lawful Intelligence: Rohde & Schwarz stellt neues Portfolio fr moderne Polizeiarbeit vor

Lawful Intelligence: Rohde & Schwarz stellt neues Portfolio f r moderne Polizeia...

19/05/2026

Press Release: South Africa to be celebrated as European Film Market's Country in Focus at the Berlinale 2027

Press Release 18 May 2026, Johannesburg South Africa has been selected as the...

19/05/2026

To Deliver for the Warfighter, Acquisition Reform Must Provide a Level Playing Field

When all companies in the market are allowed to compete under the same set of ru...

19/05/2026

Unjammable Lifeline: L3Harris Fiber-Optic Tethers Keep Warfighters Connected

Battle-proven technology withstands electronic warfare threats across air, maritime surface and subsea domains....

19/05/2026

WESCAM MX-Series: Defining the Moment Before the Target Moves

WESCAM MX-Series EO/IR systems provide high-precision targeting across domains, including counter-UAS applications...

19/05/2026

Cobalt Digital and SineSix Media Partner to Transform Accessibility Compliance into a More Engaging Viewer Experience at NAB Show 2026

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. April 16, 2026 - Cobalt Digital today announced a partnership ...

19/05/2026

Cobalt Digital Announces Launch of blueCORE at NAB Show 2026: Compact Powerhouse Signal Processors for SDI and ST 2110 Workflows

Las Vegas - April 18, 2026 Cobalt Digital, the leading designer and manufactur...

19/05/2026

Advanced HDR by Technicolor and Cobalt Digital Address Live Production Gap as HDR Adoption Collides With Legacy Workflows

LAS VEGAS April 18, 2026 - Advanced HDR by Technicolor and Cobalt Digital are ...

19/05/2026

Cobalt Digital Wins Two Future Best of Show Awards at 2026 NAB Show

LAS VEGAS - May 4, 2026 - Cobalt Digital, the leading designer and manufacturer of signal processing products, and a founding partner in the openGear initiativ...

19/05/2026

Cobalt Digital Brings Flexible End-to-End IPMX/ST 2110 Ecosystem to MPTS

London - 11 May 2026 Cobalt Digital, the leading designer and manufacturer of award-winning signal processing products, and a founding partner in the openGear...

19/05/2026

Clear-Com Enhances Musikal Perahu Kertas with Eclipse HX and FreeSpeak II

eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......

19/05/2026

Ross Production Services Flexes Infrastructure with Console Switch

Celebrating its ability to quickly adapt to changing requirements, Ross Production Services (RPS) has put its flexible infrastructure to good use, switching one...

19/05/2026

NFL Pushes Back Against Critics of Games on Streaming

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

19/05/2026

NEP Group Rolls Out Two New Mobile Production Units In U.S.

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

19/05/2026

Phoenix Broadcast Solutions Raises its Live Production Ga...

Grass Valley has entered into a three-year enterprise agreement with Phoenix Broadcast Solutions as the Singapore-based company expands its live production oper...

19/05/2026

Clear-Com Enhances Musikal Perahu Kertas with Eclipse HX...

Clear-Com supported Musikal Perahu Kertas, a large-scale musical theater production in Indonesia adapted from the acclaimed novel by Dee Lestari, through the d...

19/05/2026

METEO CONSULT and La Chaine Meteo Select Actus Digital fo...

Actus Digital, a LiveU company, and a leading provider of intelligent media monitoring and broadcast compliance platforms, announced today that METEO CONSULT ha...

19/05/2026

Transforming Broadcast Operations - Globecast Unveils Sta...

Globecast, a leading provider of managed services for the broadcast and media industry, today announced the completion of a major renovation of its Singapore fa...

19/05/2026

Calrec Console Switch Helps Ross Production Services Fle...

Following a major upgrade to its Connecticut remote production centre with the installation of three 60-fader Argo S consoles in 2023, RPS has switched one of t...

19/05/2026

PlayBox Technology Launches a Modular Media Orchestration...

PlayBox Technology today announced the launch of Celebro Play, a browser-based media orchestration platform designed specifically for broadcast facilities and p...

19/05/2026

Publicis Groupe to Buy LiveRamp for $2.2 Billion

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

19/05/2026

Tubi Launches 2026 FIFA World Cup Fox Hub

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

19/05/2026

Viamedia Introduces a New Geographic Intelligence Layer

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...