It’s award season, and things are looking great for The Chanzo and its journalists. So far, The Chanzo journalists have scooped four awards, and one award was dedicated to The Chanzo.

The first award was received on July 15, 2023, here The Chanzo was announced the winner of the Tanzania Digital Awards as the blog of the year and Khalifa Said, one of The Chanzo’s co-founders and editor was awarded best online journalist, men’s subcategory.

The Tanzania Digital Awards are organized by a public relation company Serengeti Bytes and this is the second year where The Chanzo emerged victorious.

On the other hand, on July 22, 2023, three of The Chanzo journalists received the Excellence in Journalism Awards in Tanzania (EJAT) which is organized by the Media Council of Tanzania (MCT).

Najjat ​​Omar, The Chanzo journalist based in Zanzibar, emerged as the winner of the investigative reporting on the side of online media. Najjat investigative piece titled, Youths Mysteriously Go Missing in Zanzibar. Families, Police Offer Contradictory Explanations, was the winning piece in this category.

Najjat was also a second runner in the tourism and conservation award with her piece that documents tourism recovery in Zanzibar after the COVID-19 pandemic.

The second award was banked by Jackline Kuwanda, The Chanzo journalist who is based in Dodoma. Jackline emerged a winner in the Oil, Gas, and Mining reporting award for online media with the article titled: Here is Why Small-Scale Miners are the Future of the Tanzania’s Mining Sector.

The third award was to Asifiwe Mbembela, The Chanzo correspondent based in Mbeya who emerged as the winner in the human rights reporting category. His story covered residents of Isela villages who were complaining that they were being forcefully removed from their homes to allow for the expansion of the Mbozi Meteorite conservation area.

Other journalists from The Chanzo who emerged as runners-up in the awards include Lukelo Francis who was the runner-up in the Good Governance and Accountability Reporting award and Joseph Kirati who emerged as the third winner in the Science and Technology Reporting award.

The Chanzo is a digital-first media initiative based in Tanzania, delivering trusted and independent public-interest journalism. The Chanzo was registered in July 2020 and started operation in September 2020. It has three co-founders Joel Ntile, Khalifa Said and Tony Alfred.

Lukelo Francis is The Chanzo’s journalist from Dar es Salaam. He is available at lukelo@thechanzo.com.