Sonia Rao completes a fellowship with Reuters in Nairobi

Sonia Rao in the field reporting on the Kenyan coast for a story about seaweed farming.

Sonia Rao, the Emanuel Freedman Scholarship winner in 2024 recently completed an OPC Foundation fellowship with Reuters Nairobi bureau. Here are a few comments from Sonia about her time there:

“Over three months, I wrote and reported stories for the wire on the impeachment of Kenya's deputy president, deteriorating Somalia-Ethiopia relations, Somaliland's elections and more. I pitched several features, including one that allowed me to travel to the coast and interview Kenyan villagers who have turned to seaweed farming as climate change has decimated other industries. I contributed reporting to big breaking news on the killing of Ugandan Olympian runner Rebecca Cheptegei, the Adani Group's presence in Kenya, a suicide bombing in Mogadishu and more.

I've learned a lot, and am so grateful to the Overseas Press Club Foundation and everyone in the Reuters Nairobi bureau for helping to make this happen!”