The Institute for Security Studies

The Institute for Security Studies (ISS) is an African organisation that aims to enhance human security on the continent. Part of my work for the ISS involved making some of its more technical white papers and reports available to a wider audience by converting them into human interest pieces. Three of the stories I wrote dealt with women who had been abducted from Kenya and placed into al-Shabaab training camps in Somalia. These articles were picked up by the press in the UK, Italy and South Africa. Additional stories were produced for the ISS’s Annual Review.

I also spent time in the small community of Touwsranten in South Africa’s Western Cape province, to research and pull together several stories on a successful violence prevention programme. To this day, my work for the ISS remains some of the most ethically challenging, creatively demanding and meaningful work I have undertaken.