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Twelve reporters from the U.S., Mexico, Nicaragua and Haiti attended the IOA’s first journalism workshop on “The Migration of HIV/AIDS.”

During the Aug. 9-11 workshop, journalists spent one day in north San Diego County, where undocumented migrants work, and another day in Baja California, Mexico, where the HIV/AIDS rate is the second-highest in Mexico. On the final day, the journalists heard presentations from several academics who had just returned from the International AIDS Society conference in Mexico City, where they presented findings from their ground-breaking research on the escalating rate of HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis at the San Diego-Tijuana border.

Journalists traveled from throughout the region to attend the workshop, which was timed to coincide with the conclusion of the international conference in Mexico City. The radio, TV and print reporters who participated in the workshop specialize in medical and health coverage. Several cover health issues for U.S. and Mexican newspapers on the border, while some report for U.S. Spanish-language publications. Other workshop participants report for publications in Haiti, Nicaragua and Mexico’s southern states of Nayarit
and Guerrero.

The workshop, which was sponsored by The Ford Foundation and the California Endowment, drew praise from the journalists.

“Even though I´ve been covering Tijuana for 14 years, it really opened my eyes … Driving along the bed of the Tijuana River and speaking with addicts was a particularly powerful testimony of a side of the drug trade that gets little coverage.” Sandra Dibble, Tijuana Bureau Chief, The San Diego
Union-Tribune

“Without a doubt, this is by far the best journalism workshop that I have attended.” Erika Cebreros, Associate Editor, El Mensajero Newspaper