SAJA-Economic Hardship Project Reporting Grants

Applications closed.

SAJA is partnering with the Economic Hardship Reporting Project to help finance freelance projects that are focused on covering the coronavirus outbreak and its impacts. The goal is to support freelance journalists who may be facing financial hardship at this time. 

What: Two grants, up to $2,500 each, to support the projects, which can be in any medium. 

Meet Our Grantees

Ghazala Irshad is a Chicago-based writer, editor, and social media strategist focused on solutions and policies affecting people at the margins of society. She previously received a grant from Transparency International in 2015 to report on corruption in Egypt's antiquities preservation. Ghazala was based in Egypt from 2011 to 2013, where she reported on the Arab Spring while earning her Masters in TV and Digital Journalism from the American University in Cairo. Her work has appeared in The Guardian, Gawker, The Cairo Review of Foreign Affairs, World Policy Institute, and Roads and Kingdoms, among others. She is on Twitter @ghazalairshad.

Ghazala will use the grant to report on mental health among restaurant workers.

Sonia Paul is a freelance journalist and audio producer based in Oakland, California. Her stories have aired and published in numerous outlets, including NPR, PRI, 70 Million, Studio 360, WIRED, The Atlantic, Harper's and The New York Times. She previously lived and reported in Japan and India, and her work has been recognized and supported by the Association of Independents in Radio, Religion News Association, Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism, and International Women’s Media Foundation, among other organizations. She is on Twitter @sonipaul.

Sonia will use the grant to report on housing affordability.