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Alumni News

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(Last updated Sept. 2007)

Fellows! Keep us posted on your whereabouts by emailing Serap, the Deputy Director, at sdrada@umd.edu.

  • 2007-08 Fellows

    • Hoa Nguyen is working as the Deputy Director of News at Ho Chi Minh City Television. He supervises some eighty staff members including reporters, cameraman and editors-in addition to twenty or so freelancers.

    Collins Wagumba is working as a lecturer at The Multi-Media University of Kenya and is enjoying raising his son Abe who was born while Collins was a Fellow in the U.S.

  • 2006-07 Fellows

    • Che Bridgette T. Fomunyam has been very busy working with a women's advocacy group in Cameroon. Bridgette represents women who are not involved with a political party to have their voices heard in the government.

    A'an Suryana is currently the Executive Director of The Jakarta Post Center for Journalism and Management. Recently, in cooperation with his Humphrey host Patrick Butler of ICFJ, he organized an environmental training for reporters and editors from major newspapers and wire services in Indonesia. ICFJ provided two Fellows are trainers. The training focused on journalism skills such as how to cover major conferences (UNFPCCC will be held in Bali December 3-14, 2008) and substantive environmental matters such as global warming and climate change. A'an is looking forward to future cooperation with other institutions to train Indonesian journalists.

    Walakkamol Changkamol is enrolled in a Ph.D. program in the School of Journalism and Communication at The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. She lives in Brisbane with her husband Kai and son Indy.

    Louis Ouezen Oulon has been busy working, traveling and adding to his family!He recently received Burkina Faso's medal of merit for journalism "Chevalier de L'ordre de Merite du Burkina Faso" the medal is given by the state to those who demonstrate utmost commitment to their work.

  • 2005-06 Fellows

    • Abid Azad is working for Aaj TV as a senior producer in Pakistan. His stories give voice to those who are rarely heard from. He also holds informal training sessions for new journalists and is trying to launch a short-documentaries program.

    Dragana Brkovic prepared two new shows to air in January and February 2007 for Montenegro television. She says a book of fiction she wrote while living in Washington has been well-received in her country. Also in January she carried out extensive research in Graz, Austria on Montenegrin writer DAnilo Kis and his book The Early Sorrows. In October Dragana's book The Lost Seal was published to excellent reviews.

    Iolanda Stoica got promoted to director of the Euro Information Center at the Galati Chamber of Commerce soon after returning to Romania from her Fellowship. She and her husband welcomed a healthy baby girl into their family in spring 2007, and are planning to move to Germany soon.

    Olfa Tantawi returned to the American University in Cairo to begin work on a thesis as well as a documentary on her Humphrey Fellowship experiences. She spent the fall semester of 2006 assisting the director of the university’s Adham Center for Electronic Journalism. Olfa also joined an NGO that teaches poor children how to express themselves through photography. “I am really so excited about this project,” she says.

    Rema Nagarajan is using the computer-assisted reporting skills she picked up during her time at Maryland to do exciting stories for India’s largest English daily. A highlight includes using Microsoft Excel to expose local officials who were inflating poverty numbers to get more money from the central government.

    Darija Buzakovic organized an international short film festival in June 2007 in her native Bosnia. She writes, “Our filmmakers don’t have a chance to participate in events like this in the world. So I thought I might bring some sense of that to them here.” Attendants included her former supervisors at the Maryland Film Office and the American Film Institute in Silver Spring. Darija is also planning to meet fellow alumni San and Rema in Vietnam in September.

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  • 2004-05 Fellows

    • Rajendra Sharma was appointed executive director of Radio Nepal. With his country’s recent transition from a monarchy to a parliamentary democracy, Rajendra reports that his station is enjoying its new-found editorial freedom. “Interesting times for Nepal,” he says.

    Michee Boko returned to Inter Press Service news agency in Benin to focus on working with local newspapers. To his friends and colleagues he has become an expert on American life and culture. “I shared so many times my experiences with colleagues and friends during official or unofficial meetings,” he writes. Michee says he wants to start his own newspaper.

    Ilma Ajanovic took a trip to Brazil in the spring of 2007 to visit a fellow Humphrey alumna, Ana Luiza Farias. Together they explored the countryside, visited what Ilma describes as a Brazilian desert, and encountered animals she isn’t likely to see in her native Bosnia and Herzegovina, such as monkeys and snakes.

    Natalia Abramova was invited by the U.S. embassy in Russia to participate in a month-long journalism program at Rostov State University.

    Ana Luiza (Lalu) Farias (Brazil) returned to Sao Paulo and joined UNIMED-BH, one of Brazil’s largest health insurance companies as a press agent. She writes that she is enjoying her foray into the private sector and hopes to gain valuable experience in her new position. She is also spending time with her friends, telling them about the great time she had in the U.S. and convincing them to apply for the Humphrey program.

    Sandor Orban (Hungary) is serving as a consultant to the Central European University in Budapest and is writing a report on the state of the Hungarian media for the Vienna-based International Press Institute.

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  • 2003-04 Fellows

    • Pamela Gutierrez (Chile) has won two in-house awards for best story published in her newspaper, La Tercera. She was promoted to the national desk, where she writes special features.

    Daysi Carolina Amaya Garcia (El Salvador) got married in June 2005 to a man she met in Tampa, Fla., during her Fellowship. She is confident her time as a Humphrey Fellow will help her find a job in the United States. “I have learned a lot from this experience,” she writes.

    Faroha Suhrawardy (Bangladesh) has been involved in a variety of interesting projects since his return from Maryland. Among these was Traffic Radio, a government-run FM channel focusing on traffic news that is the first of its kind in the region. He has also worked on a UN community based project aimed at Bangladesh’s fishing communities. Now, Faroha is about to become a student again. He has been accepted to the Masters Program in Public Policy and Governance at the North South University.

    Saidazim (Said) Gaziev (Uzbekistan) was recruited by the BBC as a media monitor and is currently undergoing training in Britain.

    Hala Zureiqat (Jordan) works as the Director of TV Administration at Jordan Radio and Television Corporation.

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  • 2002-03 Fellows

    • Pelekelo (Pele) Liswaniso (Zambia) is currently a Research Fellow in Media Management at Rhodes’ University’s Sol Plaatje Media Leadership Institute in South Africa. He is also the vice-secretary of the recently formed Zambia Fulbright Humphrey Alumni Association (ZAFHAA). Pele plans to complete his graduate degree in December 2005 and hopes to become “a media chief one of these fine days!”

    Hazel Feigenblatt (Costa Rica) is working as an investigative reporter at La Nacion www.nacion.com in Costa Rica where she writes stories about financial issues and government procurement. After completing her Master's Degree in Public Affairs Reporting in 2004, she returned to her country and won her second national journalism award for a series about how the U.S.-Central America Trade Agreement was passed in the Capitol Hill. Hazel also writes about consumer affairs in her blog www.nacion.com/consumidor which she says has been inspired by all the bad customer service experiences she's had in Costa Rica and the U.S. Email: hazelfeig@gmail.com

    Jean Kebere (Burkina Faso) has been hired as the West Africa Information officer for a British NGO and writes that “this confirms that the Humphrey program has been really helpful to me and has really enhanced my skills.”
    Email: jkebere@yahoo.com

    Yiping Cai (China) has been quite busy since her return to Beijing. She continues her work as the editor of China Women’s News as well as with CCTV and traveled recently to Denmark and Thailand. She has also been networking with other Humphrey Fellows and the U.S. embassy in Beijing to establish a Chinese Humphrey Alumni Association. She writes that she is busy and happy but that she “also misses the days I spent in Maryland.”

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  • 2001-02 Fellows

    • Tangeni Amupadhi (Namibia) recently became co-editor of Insight Namibia, a current affairs and business monthly. He also continues to freelance for The Namibian, his country’s leading English daily as well as several non-Namibian publications.

    Jacqueline Surin (Malaysia) joined The Edge, a business and investment weekly as a senior writer.
    Email: jsurin@bizedge.com

    Marion Ddamulira (Uganda) returned to work as a public relations officer with her country’s Human Rights Commission. She travels extensively and recently conducted an awareness program for rural populations on the rights of people with disabilities.
    Email: ddamul69@yahoo.com

    Joseph Were (Uganda) continues to work for The Monitor, an independent English daily in Uganda. He is the paper’s Training and Multi Media Editor, and thus draws upon both the online journalism and human resource management skills that he developed in the course of his Fellowship year.
    Email: jwere@hotmail.com

    Rym Belhaj (Tunisia) continues to head the Industrial and Foreign Relations section at the High Institute of Technology and hopes to get promoted by the end of 2004. She recently earned a diploma in management and also became a municipal councilor.
    Email: rym.belha@iset.com

    Mihaela (Maia) Eremie (Romania) helped set up the local chapter of a new political party, Union for Rebuilding Romania (www.urr.ro) in her hometown of Cluj-Napoca and was elected its vice-president . She is employed as the public relations manager of Telzimex, a telecommunications company. Maia also got married and has changed her name to Mihaela Banciu.
    Email: mihaela.banciu@telezimex.ro

    Saif Sumbal moved to Canada at the end of his Humphrey year in Maryland to pursue a master’s degree on Public Administration at Queens University. Last fall, he entered the Ph.D. program in Political Science at the University of Western Ontario in London (Ontario) where he is focusing on international trade and development issues.
    Email: saifksumbal@hotmail.com

    Daniel Anyz is currently in Bucharest, Romania but will be returning to the Czech Republic at the end of March 2004. He is in the process of completing his thesis on Online Journalism in the Czech Republic and is working as a freelancer for several media outlets including one of the leading dailies, Mlada fronta dnes and the Czech section of the BBC. He writes that “hopefully this year’s Humphrey Fellows’ are as nice and smart as we were!”
    Email: danielanyz@hotmail.com

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  • 2000-01 Fellows

    • Margarita Funes (El Salvador) recently visited the Washington D.C. area while on vacation in the United States. Currently the editor of the online version of La Prensa Grafica, one of El Salvador’s main dailies, she says that in this position she has been recognized for “all the new knowledge that I brought from my experience in the US.”
    Email: maitu@hotmail.com

    Kavita Sherchan, a journalist from Nepal, joined the Kathmandu office of the Asian Development Bank as its External Relations and Civil Society Liaison Officer.
    Email: ksherchan@adb.org

    Basel Ghattas continues to serve as the General Director of the Galilee Society—the Arab National Society for Health and Social Research. A non-governmental organization, the Galilee Society works to fulfill the needs of the Arab Palestinian minority in Israel through a variety of health, environment and development-related programs. Basel writes that he has visited the U.S. a few times since his return and hopes to visit Maryland on his next trip.
    Email: bghattas@gal-soc.org

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  • 1999-00 Fellows

    • Li Hong is now a director with the Chinese Ministry of Cultural Affairs and writes “indeed I have benefited a lot from the Humphrey year. It broadened my horizon, deepened my perspective and improved my leadership skills. I am grateful for the experience and I should thank you for your facilitation which made my stay in Maryland so memorable.
    Email: zhaoduan@hotmail.com

    Vesna Travljanin, a media lawyer by training, Vesna currently works as Secretary General of Association of Municipalities and Cities for the Federation of Bosnia and Hercegovina. Previously, she worked as the Director of Legal Affairs for the "Oslobodenje" a BiH Daily Newspaper. She was one of the first lawyers selected to work as Judicial Reform Officer as part of the Independent Judicial Commission. While at OSCE, Vesna held the position of legal advisor in the Office of Reform and Public Administration in Sarajevo Head office.
    Email: Vesna@sogfbih.ba

    Tran Van Ngoi of Vietnam returned to the Committee on Organization and Personnel upon completing his Humphrey Fellowship in Maryland. In 2001, he got a scholarship to the University of Potsdam (Germany), and in mid-2003, he received a master’s degree in Public Management. He now works for the Ministry of Home Affairs and is a candidate for the position of Deputy Director General of the International Cooperation Department.
    Email: tranvngoi1@yahoo.com

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  • 1998-99 Fellows

    • Ndaeyo Uko founded the non-profit International Center for the Advancement of Journalism in 2004 to reinforce democracy in Africa through high standards of journalism, an idea he nurtured during his time as a Humphrey Fellow. Ndaeyo also teaches journalism at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia and is a training consultant for major newspapers in West and Central Africa.

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  • 1997-98 Fellows

    • Luis Figueroa (Guatemala) is a professor of Social Philosophy and Forensic Rethorics at Universidad Francisco Marroquín where he is also the director of public relations. He is a member of the Investigations Board at the Centro de Estudios Económico Sociales. Luis writes the blog Carpe Diem www.luisfi61.com and contributes to the blog Libremente www.libremente.org. His articles have won the Charles L. Stillman Prize twice; and can be found at www.elcato.org and at www.eldiarioexterior.com. He is a frequent guest on various radio and TV programs. Email: luisfi@ufm.edu

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  • 1996-97 Fellows

    • Desire Ename went on a hunger strike for 10 days after the government shut down his newspaper for running a factual story on Gabon’s territorial disputes with its neighbor, Equatorial Guinea. He says the government described the story as “un-patriotic.” The ban on his paper, originally set at three months, was lifted after one.

    Joseph (Joe) Saade (Lebanon) recently moved to Washington D.C. from Lebanon to work at Radio Sawa, an Arabic language radio station established by the Voice of America.

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