PIWDW Receives $10,000 Grant from George Soros' Open Society Institute

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Amber Nelson, Director of Development
The Press Institute for Women in the Developing World
anelson@piwdw.org
415-516-3012

The Open Society Institute recently granted The Press Institute for Women in the Developing World a $10,000 grant. The grant will be used to develop and implement an original HIV/AIDS reporting training curriculum that will be taught at all PIWDW Global Training Sites later this year. A portion of the grant will also go toward to PIWDW Newswire expansion initiative.

PIWDW Founder Cristi Hegranes has created templates for several new issue specific training programs. "We chose to develop our Reporting AIDS curriculum first because we felt that the need was the greatest in both Chiapas and Nepal for greater access to reliable information and stories about the many layer and facets of AIDS," Hegranes said. The AIDS currriclum will be taught first in the Nepal Global Training Site by December of this year.

The OSI grant coincided with the launch of the new PIWDW.org website. Hegranes says a portion of the funds from OSI will help create a new distribution plan for newswire content, allow content to appear in as many six languages and improve access and navigation issues throughout the site and newswire.

About PIWDW: The Press Institute beleives that journalism is an empowering tool that brings voice, strength and light to issues that are hidden and people who are oppressed around the world. With the program, people who are expressing themselves about community issues in one country now can have a beneficial impact on the ability of people in other countries to express themselves, too. The Institute, which currently operates in Mexico and Nepal, trains women in developing countries to serve as reporters in their own communities, covering issues of HIV/AIDS, violence against women, poverty, reproductive rights, political oppression and community development.

For more information about PIWDW, The Open Society Institute or the recent grant, please contact Amber Nelson, director of development, anelson@piwdw.org, or Cristi Hegranes, cristi@piwdw.org.