Meet Robyn Dixon, @rrrobynnn “I am Australian, but I left my home city of Melbourne in 1993 and have been covering different parts of the world since them. I was based in Moscow for a decade. My daughter spent her first four years there. I covered wars in Chechnya, Afghanistan and Iraq, and traveled across the former USSR. In 2003 I moved to South Africa with my daughter and I have been covering Sub-Saharan Africa since then. At times it’s a juggling act, trying to keep my home life afloat from distant locations and get the job done as well.
Since I started in journalism as a cub reporter, I’ve always looked for stories that shine a light on brave and inspiring individuals, even in the deepest adversity. I have also look for stories about injustice and human rights, often focusing on girls, women and violence against them.

My favorite part of the job is travelling to unusual places and connecting with people who are brave, visionary people, or people who dedicate their lives to helping other people. On this trip I met a canoeist named Michael Mathok in the Sudd wetlands, who risked his life to save starving people, displaced by conflict, using his canoe. I met Cathy Groenendijk, a Ugandan woman who opened her home and her life to homeless, abused girls in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, many fleeing early marriage. And I interviewed Edmund Yakani, a community activist who has been threatened many times, but continues to speak out frankly and bravely about his country’s ills. Over the years, it is the people I have met, who make my job so special.”

Photo credit: @sarahyltonphoto #IWMFfellows were on the ground in #Tanzania and #SouthSudan in May 2016 as part of the IWMF’s African Great Lakes Reporting Initiative. Follow the link in our bio to view all IWMF opportunities