Frank Islam and Debbie Driesman Foundation to fund fellowship for Indian journalist

The Fellow will spend six months in Missouri School of Journalism and a US newsroom.

The Frank Islam & Debbie Driesman Foundation has entered into an agreement with Alfred Friendly Press Partners to fund a fellowship in the United States for a young journalist from India for six months, the two organizations said.

“The Frank Islam & Debbie Driesman Fellow will work in a major newsroom in Washington, DC, for five months after undergoing a five-week training program at the Missouri School of. Journalism in Columbia, MO,” the foundation said in a press release.

“[The] Fellow will learn, through hands-on training and practical experience, the skills needed to hold people in power in India accountable, through well-reported stories and investigative articles, data-driven reporting projects and multi-platform presentations,” AFPP said in a separate release.

The Indian American philanthropist and his wife “will help select” the Fellow, it said, adding that “Islam will interact with the 2017 Alfred Friendly Fellowship Class and speak during the awards ceremony at the end of the fellowship in Washington, D.C., in September.”

“Our foundation is proud to join hands with AFPP to support this fellowship,” the Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh, -born Islam said. “Debbie and I consider the fellowship a strategic investment in the free press. Over the past three decades, AFPP has trained 15 world class journalists from India who have gone on to become leaders in the field. It is our earnest belief that the FIDD Fellow will continue that tradition.”

“We are especially delighted to welcome Frank Islam and Debbie Driesman to our fold,” Randall D. Smith, president of the Alfred Friendly Press Partners, said. “Support such as theirs is the reason that we’ve been able to train more than 300 journalists from 90 different countries for over 30 years.”

Describing Islam and Driesman as “ambassadors for democracy” who “understand the critical importance of a free press,” Smith said their “investment will impact countless lives in ways that can’t yet be imagined. That’s the potential of quality journalism.”

Islam and Driesman launched the foundation in 2007 after the Indian American entrepreneur sold the technology company QSS which he ran for 13 years. Located in Potomac, MD, the foundation funds organizations and causes in the fields of education, art and culture, and peace and conflict-resolution.

Its major grantees include Aligarh Muslim University — Islam’s alma mater, to which he gave $2 million — and the US Institute of Peace.

The Alfred Friendly fellowship was established by the family of the late Pulitzer-winning Washington Post reporter Alfred Friendly in 1984.

This post was updated.