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East County Media's proposal for an Innovation Grant from the J.M. Kaplan Fund aspires to create a digital Social Justice News and Resources Center on our award-winning news site, www.EastCountyMagazine.org.
Our proposal is supported by prominent leaders of organizations that help refugees and immigrations. Our project leaders have award-winning journalism and humanitarian backgrounds, including extensive experience reporting on/working with immigrants, refugees, and other vulnerable populations locally and globally.
Images from our past coverage of refugee and immigrant issues (right)
View letters of recommendation for our grant project
- Elizabeth Lou, President./CEO, Nile Sisters (winner, United Nations’ Eleanor Roosevelt humanitarian award)
- Estela de Los Rios, Exec. Director, Center for Social Advocates (Advocates for immigrants; organized national immigrant march from San Diego to Washington D.C.)
- Dilkhwaz Ahmed, Exec. Director, License to Freedom (winner of numerous awards)
- Bob Gans, Co-chair, Welcome Home New Americans, San Diego (son of Holocaust survivors, now helping refugees)
- Mitch Murphy, KNSJ, Producer, Talk of the Town
Our team leaders:
Miriam Raftery has over 35 years of journalism experience, wth thousands of articles published in national and regional newspapers and magazines. She is Executive Director of East County Media, as well as the founder and Editor of both East County Magazine and East County Wildfire & Emergency Alerts. She also hosts the East County Magazine Radio Show on KNSJ, the network for social justice. Over more than three decades, she has won over 350 major reporting awards regionally and nationally including top honors from the Society of Professional Journalists and San Diego Press Club. These include first place awards for investigative reporting, multicultural reporting, breaking news. Special journalism prizes include the Sol Price Award, James Julian Memorial Award, League of Women Voters, and the Gloria Penner Award. She received the national Arlene Award from the Association of Journalists and Authors for her report on election tampering, which resulted in California's Secretary of State decertifying vulnerable touchscreen voting machines. Her reporting includes investigative reports on issues facing refugees, immigrants, asylum seekers, the homeless, and Native Americans, as part of her commitment to social justice coverage. For over a decade, she was a regular contributing journalist and columnist for the San Diego Union-Tribune, also serving as contributing editor for Nutrition BusinessJournal and senior national political correspondent for RawStory.com. In addition, she has written grants for media projects and emergency alerts that have been funded by San Diego Foundation for Change, Facebook Journalism Project, Grossmont Healthcare Organization, San Diego Regional Fire Foundation and more. Her passion is community journalism and reporting stories in under-served communities, striving for new coverage that can make a positive difference in our region and our world. Granddaughter of immmigrants and Holocaust victims, she is committed to news coverage of people fleeing war and persecution, seeking a better life in our community.
Henri Migala, Ph.D., has worked around the world and locally on projects that have included aiding refugees, disaster victims, and migrants. Also a photojournalist, he has won awards for his articles in East County Magazine from San Diego Press Club and Society for Professional Journalists. Issues that he has covered include Native American/tribal concerns, racial justice, civil unrest, wildfires, environmental justice, and local governmental actions. He has also written nearly $30 million in grants that have funded. He has lived and worked in 15 countries in global health, international development, higher education administration and humanitarian aid including disaster relief, notably during the Asian tsunami. His past positions include Director of International House at the University of California San Diego, Executive Dean and Grants Administrator for Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District, and Adjunct Faculty instructor at San Diego City College. He holds a doctor of education degree from San Diego State university, a Masters in Public Health from the University of North Texas, and a Master of Art degree at the University of Texas, where he studied anthropology. He has also authored many academic papers. A volunteer and board member with Aguilas del Desierto, Inc., he helps save lives of lost migrants. As a Rotary Club President, he has worked with International Relief Teams directly aiding refugees, including at the San Diego-Mexico border. He has won many awards for community service and international activities including working to eradicate polio through the World Health Organization as well as participating in rural, border and cross-cultural health issues, disaster relief and reconstruction. Founder of Henri Migala Photography, he has won numerous photography awards and had an image taken during a search for a lost migrant chosen as a “Top 10” finalist in the Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest.
Our past coverage of refugee and immigrant issues
Our nonprofit is new, established in late 2018. But our team has been coverage issue impacting local refugees, immigrants and asylum seekers since 2008. Below are samples of just some of our prior coverage:
Refugee and immigrant news articles
https://www.eastcountymagazine.org/syrian-refugee-families%E2%80%99-struggles-continue-east-county
https://www.eastcountymagazine.org/alone-strange-land-african-asylees-tell-their-stories
https://www.eastcountymagazine.org/little-mogadishu-east-africa-east-san-diego
https://www.eastcountymagazine.org/little-mogadishu-east-africa-east-san-diego
https://www.eastcountymagazine.org/interview-survivors-torture-vulnerable-during-pandemic
https://www.eastcountymagazine.org/supervisors-adopt-plans-help-afghan-refugees
https://www.eastcountymagazine.org/ukrainian-americans-hold-vigils-santee-and-san-diego
https://www.eastcountymagazine.org/americans-helping-afghan-refugees
https://www.eastcountymagazine.org/region-readies-welcome-ukrainian-refugees-and-seek-federal-aid
Refugee profiles
https://www.eastcountymagazine.org/ugandan-refugee-seeks-work-he-adapts-life-american-urban-jungle
https://www.eastcountymagazine.org/refugees-burma-and-bhutan-find-new-homes-east-san-diego-region
https://www.eastcountymagazine.org/features/refugee-voices?page=2
https://www.eastcountymagazine.org/triumph-out-tumult-iraqi-human-rights-activist-nital-meshkoor
Radio interviews:
https://www.eastcountymagazine.org/hundreds-asylum-seekers-dumped-local-transit-stops-over-holidays
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