Washington, D.C. – The global journalism collaborative Covering Climate Now has recognized The Fuller Project with a 2024 Covering Climate Now Journalism Award for an investigation into the link between extreme weather events, made more frequent and intense by climate change, and increased incidents of violence against women.
Published in partnership with The Washington Post and Nation, The Fuller Project reported from India, Kenya and the Philippines on how floods, storms and droughts are combining with poverty and acting as a force multiplier to increase the pressures that make women vulnerable to domestic abuse.
The piece was among 51 selected out of more than 1,250 entries from journalists in dozens of countries, working in every medium, for outlets including Agence France-Presse, BBC News, and Reuters. A judging panel of 117 distinguished journalists selected three winners in each of 14 subject-based categories, including solutions, justice, politics, and health, among others, for work representing “the leading edge of climate storytelling.” The Fuller Project was recognized in the health category.
“The women in this story are trapped by flooding, both literally and figuratively,” one judge said. “I found myself feeling claustrophobic at the descriptions of being trapped by floodwaters in a home with an abusive husband.’”
For this investigation, reporters Geoffrey Ondieki, Disha Shetty, and Aie Balagtas See interviewed women at a refuge in a region of northern Kenya and a rural Indian community downstream from the Himalayas. In the Philippines, they traveled to a remote island hit by a deadly supertyphoon to hear the stories of women trapped in emergency shelters with abusive partners. They combined this with testimony from scientific experts researching the emerging links between climate change and abuse.
“Thanks to our gender journalism partnership with Nation Media Group in Kenya, the lead byline on this story was a local journalist in Samburu County, whose reporting allowed us to access women’s stories that would otherwise be ignored,” said Fuller Project Managing Editor Claire Cozens, who oversaw the project. “Bringing underreported local stories from the global south to the world’s attention is at the core of The Fuller Project’s work and this recognition from Covering Climate Now underscores the importance of our mission.”
The Fuller Project is the global newsroom dedicated to groundbreaking reporting that catalyzes positive change for women. Since 2015, The Fuller Project’s reporting has influenced new legislation, helped end life-threatening practices, and led to large scale releases of public data.
Contact: Kim Abbott at 202-441-4404.
