The U.S. government has repeatedly claimed that “no one is dying” as a result of its foreign aid cuts. But reporter Kristen Gelineau, who has been covering the impact of the cuts, knew that women and children were dying as a result of cuts to maternal and child health programs. Yet quantifying these deaths is virtually impossible, in part because the funding cuts also eliminated the jobs of many mortality data collectors.
After months of cultivating sources and searching for a place where the human cost could be documented, she learned of a spike in maternal and infant deaths in an impoverished district of Nepal. Gelineau and visual journalist Bram Janssen, working alongside translator Tulsi Rauniyar, traveled to the remote region to investigate.
The team interviewed families grieving the deaths of pregnant women and babies. They visited health clinics and village offices, combing through handwritten logbooks to document deaths that had never been publicly counted. Rauniyar obtained hospital records and interviews with medical workers who had cared for two women featured in the story.
The story became one of AP’s most read and generated thousands of reactions online. Gelineau was flooded with messages from readers, including several who wanted to help the family of Kabita Mukhiya, who died along with her unborn baby.
Impressed by the accountability and fact-checking, judges praised the sensitivity and humanity with which the story was reported and presented.
For refusing to allow the uncounted to remain invisible, Gelineau, Janssen and Rauniyar win this week’s Best of the AP – First winner.
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