After reporting on HIV/AIDS for a year, radio journalist Sammy Muraya found that the Kenyan media rarely covered the effects of the pandemic on the country’s refugee population. Muraya contacted the office of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees in Nairobi to find out more about how people managed the disease within the camps, where he found people were reluctant to talk about HIV/AIDS. “It was extremely difficult getting the people in the refugee camp to tell me their stories and trust me enough to grant me recorded interviews,” Muraya said.

Internews Kenya awarded Sammy a travel grant to report about HIV stigma in the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Northern Kenya. There he spoke with women who were scared of being tested for HIV after they’d been raped, because they feared the stigma that was rampant amongst camp inhabitants. “I had to take time and build trust, especially from the women - who eventually opened up and shared their very personal experiences,” Muraya explained. “I did this by taking time to speak to them and explain how sharing their stories was a way of reaching out to help others in similar situations, as well as a cry out to authorities and policy makers to intervene.” The story raised national awareness about the risks of HIV in the country’s conflict areas. In 2006, the story won the best general news radio story category at the CNN/MultiChoice African Journalist of the Year Competition.