BEBESEA X New Naratif Story Fellowship 2024: Call for Applications

Story Fellowship is back!

We believe that real human stories play a crucial role in raising awareness, understanding, and sympathy towards others including migrant communities and stateless people alike. Those who are immobile or involuntarily mobile have been stripped of basic rights and privileges we often take for granted.

This fellowship aims to give back power with a chance to tell their own stories. We aim to conduct a capacity building, in the form of a Story Fellowship grant and mentoring, for communities in the regions. Through this programme, we aim to publish stories that highlight voices, concerns, and aspirations from the communities. 

Call for Applications

We invite aspiring storytellers of migrant communities and in/from Southeast and East Asia, individually or collectively, to pitch your original works to witness and raise awareness of experiences of migration. This fellowship is aimed for those who have already story projects they are working on, but would need some additional technical and financial assistance to bring the projects to completion. Successful stories will be published by New Naratif and BEBESEA.

Maximum of 5 selected fellows will receive training and mentoring on storytelling and advocacy by experts in journalism and human rights advocacy, as well as US$1,000 per contribution to fund their projects.

We welcome works of fiction and non-fiction alike. We make no limitations on format as long as the final product can be published and/or showcased in online platforms. These include, but not limited to, journalistic articles, comics, illustrated stories, photo essays, short films, documentary videos, audio works, and others.

The work of the selected fellows will be published on New Naratif and BEBESEA’s website and their social media platforms. Fellows may choose to remain anonymous and will be given a chance to request certain terms and conditions of publications and online appearances for safety considerations.

Suggested Topics 

Previous fellows covered a wide range of topics, including stateless communities in Malaysia, the personal experience of a 12-year-old boy fleeing Myanmar’s military occupation, and kinship and identity of a mixed-raced individual in Japan. The stories are available on this page.

We encourage applicants to consider how you would like to engage with the works of previous fellows of this programme in developing and working on your project.

This year, we aim to cover just as wide a range of topics as the previous years. Suggested topics include, but are not limited to:

• Labour rights of migrant communities; 
• Experiences of displacement and forced migration; 
• Gender justice for migrant, refugees or stateless communities;
• Climate change and people on the move;
• Freedom of expression and information on issues around migration, displacement or statelessness. 

Requirements and Selection Process

All applications must be submitted through the application form by 11.59pm (GMT+8 / Malaysia Time) on Sunday, 30 June 2024. Shortlisted applicants will be invited to an online interview that will be scheduled in mid-July.

Selections will be made to ensure diversity of geographical locations and issues are covered and represented in this fellowship program while assessing the uniqueness and feasibility of proposed plans. The fellowship will be awarded to a maximum of five projects. 

• Your proposed work must be original and has not been previously published; 
• The application form must be completed in English, while the output of the final work can be in another language; 
• The story must be relevant to communities of Southeast Asia or East Asia;
• Applicants must be 18 years old or over.

Please note that we are not able to answer any questions on the status of individual applications before the final decisions are made and announced. 

Information Session

An information session will be held online on Monday, 17 June 2024  at 5.30-6.30pm (Yangon) / 6.00-7.00pm (Bangkok, Hanoi, Jakarta, Phnom Penh) / 7.00-8.00pm (Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Taipei) / 8.00-9.00pm (Seoul, Tokyo). Attending the information sessions not mandatory, and the main presentation part will be recorded and shared online. Sign-up to attend the session here. 

Timeline of the Story Fellowship

17 June 2024: Information Session

30 June 2024: Deadline for applications

End of July 2024: Selected fellows to be informed

August – November 2024: Fellowship period (workshops and 1-1 mentorship)

December 2024: Completion of the final works

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This programme is supported by the Sasakawa Peace Foundation and Human Rights Working Group, Indonesia.