The CSWA is twinned with Kenya’s two associations representing science communicators and science journalists.

MESHA, Media for Environment, Science, Health and Agriculture, twinned with us in 2006 after the Melbourne conference of the World Federation of Science Journalists.

This ‘twinning’ of associations is an initiative of the WFSJ, which has 41 member associations. Partnering with new associations in Africa and the Middle East is intended to help foster better governance and close ties with science and health journalists in developing countries. To this end, Kathryn O’Hara (who was CSWA vice president at the time) took part in MESHA’s three day training workshop for science journalists in Nairobi in 2008. There, she met Rosalia Omungo and after a few failed attempts to find funding the CSWA was able to bring Rosalia, a TV reporter with KTV, and Cosmas Butunyi, a newspaper reporter for the Nation, to Ottawa for our conference in 2011.

This year, the new Kenyan Science Journalists’ Association (KESJA) became a member of the WFSJ, so we now include then in our twinship–or should that be triplets?

More information about CSWA’s twinning activities:

• How to make “twinning” work. Rosalia Omungo reflects on the Canadian Science Writers’ Association’s 2010 conference during its closing hours on a June evening in Ottawa.