Many high profile communications professionals start out as journalists before finding their nose for a story in demand elsewhere. Pilirani Semu-Banda, a graduate from the 2002 Thomson Foundation summer course, is one of them.
Pilirani Semu-Banda now works for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and as a communications officer is helping to promote its message about how it is helping women in Malawi lead healthy and productive lives.
Previously a newspaper reporter, she is now is in charge of both the internal and external communication of UNFPA's Malawi country office, a role which includes speech writing, editing stories and organising training.
While her role has radically changed since her reporter days, the skills that she developed early in her career are still in demand at UNFPA.
Journalistic skills Most of the work I do is journalistic because I go into communities and interview beneficiaries of the interventions that UNFPA has on the ground, she says.
I work on raising the visibility of UNFPAs work in Malawi which is focused on ensuring that we deliver a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young persons potential is fulfilled.
Her current project for the UNFPA is a documentary on women who have developed a fistula during childbirth, which she says is a demeaning condition that sometimes leads to women experiencing urinary or faecal incontinence for years.
In the documentary she will follow a number of patients before, during and after a fistula repair funded by the UNFPA.
It is satisfying to do a story where you see women regaining dignity after getting repaired, she explains.
Pilirani was working at Malawis biggest newspaper the Nation when she secured a place on the Thomson Foundation summer course in 2002.
On her return, she was promoted to the post of senior reporter before moving into development communications.
Empowering women
She is passionate about empowering women in her homeland and also volunteers with Voice Flame, an organisation that works to transform the lives of women through writing and education.
She credits the summer course with giving her the confidence to see her potential as a journalist and overcome some of the challenges she faced as a woman in the workplace.
I was working in a male-dominated newsroom then at the Nation but the summer course helped to take on the gender challenges facing me head on.
I will always live to cherish my time at Thomson Foundation, she adds. I met other great journalists who have also achieve a lot and learnt a great deal from the diverse group that was part of the summer course I attended.
The summer course is a great opportunity for any journalist and one should really take it seriously and maximize all the opportunities and lessons that are offered.
As someone working in NGO communications, Pilirani has a strong social media presence and she believes that being tech savvy is a must for journalists in this era.
Another essential attribute she identifies is having a thick skin. Journalism is challenging especially in the developing world.
Theres great need to be objective and to really be passionate about the needs of the masses because journalists are the watchdog of society.
These days the game has changed; it is not only bad news that is news. We have a role to promote development as well and human interest news on what successes communities and individuals are achieving makes interesting reading.
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Many high profile communications professionals start out as journalists before finding their nose for a story in demand elsewhere. Pilirani Semu-Banda, a graduate from the 2002 Thomson Foundation summer course, is one of them.
