Mini-grants: the people selected to investigate stories on energy and the climate crisis

Agência Pública and Conectas have selected four stories out of the more than 70 proposals received

In the 17th round of Agência Pública´s Mini-grant programme, held in conjunction with Conectas Human Rights, reporters from all over Brazil were invited to investigate the socioenvironmental impacts of energy production and the need to carry out a fair transition. We received 71 entries from reporters countrywide.

The proposals were analysed in terms of the quality of their preliminary investigation, originality, feasibility and the safety of the subject matter and the journalistic resources and methods to be employed. Over the last few weeks, a committee made up of members of Agência Pública and Conectas examined the stories received in order to define the final four that will receive grants of R$8 thousand each, as well as mentoring during the making of the report.

It was no easy task to choose from so many good stories. See below the people who were selected.

Camila Aguiar de Oliveira Lopes

She is a Journalist and holds a Master´s degree in Environmental Development (UFC). The focus of her career path so far has been on environmental justice and her experience has been with rural communities involved in environmental conflicts with a uranium and phosphate mining project in the municipality of Santa Quitéria (Ceará). She is currently working as an Audio-visual Creator providing content for socioenvironmental projects and volunteers as a Collaborator at Agência EcoNordeste. She creates content on the conservation of biodiversity, coexistence with semi-arid land, social technology, agroforestry, agroecology, permaculture, traditional wisdom and environmental justice.

Étore Medeiros and Iano Flávio Maia

Étore Medeiros graduated in Journalism at the University of Brasília (2012). He worked as a Reporter in Brasília, with particular focus on the National Congress, human rights and the environment from 2013 to 2017 and for Correio Braziliense and Agência Pública, where he was a fact-checker and a correspondent. He has also worked at Agência Brasília and SBT.

Iano Flávio Maia graduated in Journalism at the Pontifícia Universidade Católica in Campinas and holds a Masters in Media Studies at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte. He was Bureau Chief, Editor and Producer at university radio and TV stations in Natal from 2010 to 2021 and he acted as a mentor for communications students. He worked on editing daily and specialist news, special reports and audio-visual content on science. He is one of the founders of Agência Saiba Mais, where he worked as a Producer and Content Editor. He is currently working as a Journalist at the Câmara Cascudo Museum, where he coordinates the communications department and content creation for social media.

Jefferson Klein and Tatiana Gappmayer

Jefferson Klein is a Journalist. He graduated at PUC-RS and has mainly followed the petrochemical, energy and logistics sectors since 2001 at Jornal do Comércio de Porto Alegre – RS, as well as other areas of the economy. In 2019, he completed the course, “El periodista de la era digital como agente y líder en la transformación social”, at the Centro Tecnológico of Monterrey, in Mexico. As a Reporter, he has received awards such as Press, Cooperativismo Gaúcho de Jornalismo and Setcergs.

Tatiana Gappmayer is a Journalist. She graduated at PUC-RS and specialised in Digital Journalism at the same university. She works with content creation on and offline, with particular focus on the areas of urbanism, architecture, education, health, culture, tourism and more recently economics. She has worked in public relations, on the printed and digital magazines, books and blogs of companies like Jornal do Comércio, Santa Editora, Editora Centaurus and World Study. She created the profile @pelacidadebaixa.

Priscila de Souza Viana and Díjna Torres

Priscila Viana holds a Masters in Social Anthropology and Journalism from the Federal University of Sergipe (UFS). She has a fellowship at Fiocruz where she works as a Social Communicator on the platform, Agroecologia em Rede (AeR). She is also a freelance Reporter and has written articles for O Joio e o Trigo and Ponte Jornalismo. She is a member of the Rede Sergipana de Agroecologia (Resea), where she works on developing and coordinating socioenvironmental projects and on networking among Sergipe´s traditional communities. 

Díjna Torres holds a Doctorate in Anthropology at UFSC. She has a Master’s degree in Sociology and Journalism at UFS. She specialised in Afro-Brazilian culture at Faculdades Integradas de Jacarepaguá. She works with cultural creation, Afro-Brazilian religions, image, gender and applied research. She is a freelance Reporter at Rede Solidária de Mulheres de Sergipe, a project run by Associação das Catadoras de Mangaba de Indiaroba. She is a press officer at MST/SE and the NGO, Casa de Mar, where she works on environmental projects in Aracaju.