Sixteen reporters from twelve newsrooms graduated last week from BHRF's first dedicated data-journalism bootcamp, a four-week intensive run in partnership with Internews and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation. The cohort produced eight publishable investigations during the programme, half of which have already appeared in their home outlets.
The curriculum covered three blocks — sourcing and cleaning open data, including DGHS bulletins and the BBS health survey; basic statistical reasoning for journalists; and reproducible visualisation using free tools. Trainers included Manas Mishra of Reuters, Rohini Mohan, and BHRF's own Hasan Mahmud.
"What surprised us was the appetite. We had assumed a four-week programme would be a stretch for working journalists, but most of the cohort showed up at every session and several stayed back to work on their own pieces afterwards," said Tanzila Haque, BHRF's office secretary, who coordinated logistics for the programme.
The graduating projects covered topics including ward-level dengue spread, district-level vacancy in nursing posts, and a comparative look at private versus public out-of-pocket expenditure on insulin. BHRF will publish a curated selection on its longread shelf later this month.
Applications for the next bootcamp will open in October. The programme will run as a hybrid this year, with two weeks online and two weeks in person.
