Two new mental health journalism fellows appointed in the UAE

Fatima Al Mahmoud and Jenna Kleinwort will join an international cohort of reporters and editors who have been awarded Rosalynn Carter fellowships

Fatima Al Mahmoud and Jenna Kleinwort. Photos: Victor Besa / The National and Jenna Kleinwort

Jenna Kleinwort and Fatima Al Mahmoud have been awarded Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism in the UAE for 2022-23.

Kleinwort is a freelance journalist who lives in Abu Dhabi and Al Mahmoud is a social media journalist at The National. They will begin their year-long, non-residential fellowship later this month.

The programme aims to improve the quality of mental health reporting in the media and is named after Rosalynn Carter, co-founder of the Carter Centre, who has been an influential voice in the field of mental health for decades.

Both journalists will receive intensive training from experts and mentors in the US to help them accurately report on mental health. They will be supported by a local advisory board in the UAE.

The Carter Centre, a US-based non-profit, non-governmental organisation, has awarded fellowships to more than 200 journalists around the world since 1996.

About 20 journalists in the US, Latin America and the Middle East will be granted fellowships this year.

The National administers and oversees the UAE mental health journalism programme and typically awards two fellowships a year.

Kleinwort previously covered business and social affairs as a video reporter at 7DNews in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Her work has also been broadcast on Bahrain TV and German channels, including ZDF.

Last year, she launched DW Akademie’s first course in Arabic to train Tunisian journalists in health journalism. Her fellowship project will focus on the people at the forefront of the mental health landscape in the UAE.

Al Mahmoud is a social media journalist at The National in Abu Dhabi and has also contributed reporting from Beirut, covering a range of mental health topics including the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on healthcare workers in Lebanon and the country's psychiatric drug shortages.

Her fellowship project will focus on first responders and mental health.

Kleinwort and Al Mahmoud will succeed Amandeep Bhangu and Anam Rizvi as UAE fellows.

Bhangu has spent her fellowship year developing a podcast series on culture, mental health and communities, while Rizvi has reported for The National on the mental health challenges that young people have faced during the pandemic.

Applications for the 2023-24 UAE cohort of Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism will open in February 2023.