Neha Wadekar

For this Somali refugee, beauty has a purpose – National Geographic

June 20, 2022Articles

Meet the pageant queen who is raising awareness about climate change.

How American Influencers Built a World Wide Web of Vaccine Disinformation – Mother Jones Magazine

June 2, 2022Articles

In the United States, the proliferation of disinformation about Covid vaccines and treatments has been widely publicized, and most of these myths come from a few powerful influencers. Last year, the anti-extremism group Center for Countering Digital Hate found that 65 percent of vaccine disinformation on Facebook and Twitter came from just 12 people, including the activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the natural lifestyle influencer Dr. Joseph Mercola. The target audience, the media reports, is in bastions of American conservatism—in rural communities, among evangelical Christians, and among Trump voters.

But there is increasing evidence that American vaccine disinformation campaigns don’t stop at the borders.

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Abortion Crisis Overseas – The Missing Piece

May 22, 2022Radio

Abortion debate has been one of the critical and influential issues within the US political and social changes, more and more people are rather outspoken, in terms of protecting and advocating for their own rights. Meanwhile, across the continents, female citizens in other nations are also struggling with the same issue. Among the nations in Africa, women no longer can find legal clinics for safe abortion, instead, they are playing fire with “illegal places.” Neha Wadekar, one international journalist joined the latest show to explain more.

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As drought worsens, can Kenyan communities coexist with native wildlife? – National Geographic

May 3, 2022Articles

The men sitting inside the open-backed safari truck were silent and tense as they pulled up alongside their target. A young male giraffe stood under the shade of a tall tree, seeking relief from the unusually brutal March sun. As he heard the tires roll over dry thorn bushes, he craned his long neck and perked up his ears.

The man in the passenger seat aimed his gun and pulled the trigger, hitting the giraffe squarely in the flank. The group let out a hushed cheer as the animal flinched.

A man in the backseat set the timer on his watch. “Seven minutes until he falls,” he whispered…

Read my latest on how the worst drought to hit NorthEast Kenya in decades is killing off its precious and endangered wildlife.

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Why global warming threatens east African coffee – The Economist

March 17, 2022Articles

Global warming may shrink the total area that is most suited to growing arabica beans by about half by 2050, according to a recent peer-reviewed paper. Other cash crops including tea will also be affected.

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‘Everyone’s using’: Mozambique scrambles to stem a rising tide of drug addiction – The Telegraph

February 8, 2022Articles

Mozambique has been a key transit point on the international drug route for the last 25 years but it has had historically low rates of drug usage compared to its northern neighbors, Kenya and Tanzania. Now, this appears to be changing and both drug users and those working in drug recovery report an increase in the number of people using heroin across the country. Aid agencies and the government are scrambling to stem the rising tide of addiction.

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15 Minutes to Change the World – Care International

January 19, 2022

Our guest today is journalist Neha Wadekar, an independent multimedia journalist reporting across the globe. Neha’s work has been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Economist, PBS NewsHour, the Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, The Telegraph, Mother Jones, CNN, TIME, and others. In this episode, we talk to Neha about under-reported stories in the media, why its so important to cast a wider net, and how we can all advocate for more diversity and inclusion in the stories we see and hear.

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