haiti_screenshot.png

Haiti Untold

You don't hear much from Haiti, except during times of disaster and crisis. You hear still less from Haiti's own journalist. I tracked down some of the best journalists in the country, inquisitive and professional and aching to tell stories beyond the dire images we see in the Western media. Besides the stories we published in top Haitian and US outlets, I worked closely with several journalists to produce a seven episode radio series that was broadcast on community radio stations across the country. I had to teach myself Creole, form an alliance with SAKS, a local community radio association, and even train Haitian print journalists in radio production.

https://haiti.conradfox.com
Assignments
  • Prisoners to puppeteers
    / Lucky to leave Haiti's jail system after years without trial ex-prisoners deal with the horror by making marionettes.
  • Rejuvenating rice
    / Haiti used to grow all its own rice, but US-imposed free trade decimated the rice industry. A government program hopes to turn that around.
  • Carnival of Change
    / Haiti's carnival called for "change", a sly dig at the government's ill-fated Caravan of Change development program.
  • Smuggled Eggs
    / High tariffs at the Dominican border have led to a thriving trade in smuggled eggs.
  • Handicapped in Port-au-Prince
    / It's hard enough getting around Port-au-Prince if you're able bodied. Trying being handicapped.
  • From Country to City
    / Port-au-Prince is swelling with migrants from the countryside. It can't take many more, and the countryside can't do without the labour.
  • A goldmine of garbage
    / An ex-dancer is trying to clean up the streets of his hometown, and provide employment at the same time.
  • Border children
    / Thousands of undocumented children, half Haitian, half Dominican and without a passport for either country, live in a limbo on the border.
  • The art of survival
    /
  • One Hour Special
    / Radio special produced by Beverley Abel and broadcast on US public radio
  • No place to play
    / A day in the life of a makeshift fitness center in Port-au-Prince
  • Child smuggling
    / Along the Haitian-Dominican border, it's an open secret that children are trafficked regularly, but no one wants to talk about it.
  • Haiti's Me Too movement
    / A comedian leads Haiti's little known Me Too movement.
  • Gay marraige off the table in Haiti
    / Haitian society took a conversative turn after the earthquake, in part due to the presence of evangelical missionaries, leaving gay people out in the cold.
  • No place to stay
    / The cost of living in Port-au-Prince is as high as Miami, thanks to an influx of aid money, putting rent out of reach of many middle class Haitians.
  • Coming Home
    / A group of young, foreign educated entrepreneurs return home brimming with enthusiasm for starting business in Haiti.
vidascruzadas.png

Vidas Cruzadas

An eight episode podcast series in Spanish that interwove the story of two young children travelling alone to the US as told by their waiting parents, with other unusual stories of migration across the continent. Although the stories were real, the script mimicked a radionovela, a popular genre among audiences in the region. The podcast series was heard on community radio stations in Central America and Mexico. I also built an interactive animated map with Mapbox to display the episodes.

https://vidascruzadas.conradfox.com
Assignments
  • Vidas Cruzadas
    / Separados por un continente ¿que lejos irá una familia para unirse?
immigration_screenshot.png

Immigration Uncovered

Produced at the height of media interest in unaccompanied minor migrants at the US-Mexico border, we sought to tell migration stories from a different perspective. I recruited a team of four reporters to follow progress of two young migrating brothers from their home in El Salvador to their waiting parents in the US. We found other, more unsual stories of migration in all parts of the continent, from a village proud of its first migrant to a foot massager on the Mexican border. Our team won a Peabody award for a report on Honduras, and was one of the first outlets to report on the traffic of African and Asian migrants through Latin America.

https://immigration.conradfox.com
Assignments
  • Driven north
    / Afro-caribbean community dwindles as land-developer and narcos move in
  • School lunches keep kids in the classroom, and at home
    / USDA-funded lunches are an incentive to stay in school, and not migrate to the US at a young age
  • The Mexican 1%
    / For wealthy Mexicans and their less fortunate countrymen, charity begins far from home
  • Migrants' cast off belongings become art
    / Artists scour the desert, finding meaning in the things migrants throw away
  • The cost of fear
    / The economics of the gang violence that has many Hondurans fleeing their country
  • Coming of age
    / The traditional quinceaños party gets a makeover when it goes north of the border
  • Through a parent's eyes
    / Parents wait in the US as children travel 4000 miles to join them
  • Living with checkpoints
    / Heightened security on Mexico's southern border appeases US, displeases locals
  • Remittances and regrets
    / Migrants yearn for a return to the US due to heartsickness and economic reality
  • Foot Massage
    / Easing weary migrants' feet
  • Empty mansions, empty stomachs
    / In rural Guatemala, remittance architecture builds social status instead of feeding families
  • Fleeing machismo
    / Engrained customs, not just poverty, drive women north
  • The First Migrant
    / Mystery and dynastic intrigue surround a small town's pioneering first migrant
  • Bridging distances
    / The changing nature of ties to home
  • Unhappy homecomings
    / Young deportees return to a life of poverty and violence
  • Dreaming on
    /
  • Crime free villages
    / Villages once the scene of bloody massacre are now some of El Salvadors safest
  • Mexican Dream
    / African and Asian migrants find a haven where others find hell
  • Immigration Uncovered
    /
landandsea_screenshot.png

Land and Sea

Two stories from Baja California where US business and local communities compete for space. As journalism mentor, I worked with the local reporter to produce balanced interviews that didn't shy from confrontation.

https://landandsea.conradfox.com
Assignments
  • Distant neighbours
    / A real estate development for US expats hopes to build "community" but is dogged by social conflict.
  • Mining the Sea
    / The world's first underwater phosphate mine might help Mexico's farmers, but it has fishermen alarmed.