First thing that’ll strike you when you meet Katharina Wecker is how genuinely friendly she is. As a private person and as a journalist, she approaches her stories, subjects and peers with an open-minded curiosity, fascinated with the stories she gets to treasure and tell. Her enthusiasm is contagious and being able to bounce ideas around with Katharina has surely expanded my worldview.

Katharina is a bilingual German multimedia journalist who thrives the most when she gets to report on environmental stories and personal stories of resilience. She’s reported on those stories from places like Vietnam, Colombia and now South Sudan for national and international media.

I’m always curious as to how other journalists find their stories. When I asked her that exact question, this is what she said:

“Generally, I’m a big fan of constructive journalism. I don’t just like to report on problems, but I always like to find people who are looking for solutions, who are working on solving the problem. I always try and find the light in the story, a positive angle. There are so many amazing people out there in the world who are actually doing something, yet somehow when you read the news it’s all doom and gloom. That’s why I decided to focus more on positive stuff. Coming from this perspective, I looked for examples: I looked at NGOs, I went on Twitter and searched for people who were tweeting from Juba. I contacted a few NGOs, a few journalists who work here and just asked around for positive stories. So, right now, I ended up with five stories and so many more ideas. Juba is full of inspiring people. Considering that it’s a country with constant conflict, there are people here who don’t give up. They still find the motivation to keep on going. “

By Jasmin Bauomy, South Sudan reporting fellow

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