Students at Greens Farms Academy discussed the future of democracy last week at a panel discussion moderated by News-Decoder.

By Nelson Graves

News-Decoder is proud to announce that a family foundation in California has made a sizable, multi-year donation that will enable our not-for-profit to grow and reach more young people around the globe.

The gift from the Drew Foundation has allowed us to hire a third, full-time staff member as we approach our fifth year of operations.

“Drew Foundation provides financial support to fund operating expenses of non-profit organizations that have demonstrated their ability to provide an out-sized impact upon humanity,” the foundation said in a statement.

“Organizations such as News-Decoder, Canary Foundation, Sentinels of Freedom and re:worktraining, where long-time friends have committed their sweat equity, are of special interest.”

The major gift complements News-Decoder’s annual fund-raising campaign, which since our launch in 2015 has combined with revenues from member schools and universities to underpin operations at our Paris-based non-profit.

Currently 17 secondary schools and universities in 10 countries are members of News-Decoder. Under the supervision of professional journalists, students produce multimedia articles for our public website and participate in webinars on major global topics, such as climate change, human rights and immigration.

A previous gift from Drew Foundation underwrote the membership this year of the African Leadership Academy in South Africa.

We are signing up partners for the 2019-20 academic year and are hoping to expand our global footprint.

Partner institutions will choose themes to be addressed in the next year, and faculty have already expressed interest in having students examine income inequality, walls and racism, among other topics.

If you have questions about our program or know of a school that might want to become a partner, please drop me a line at nelson.graves@news-decoder.com.

Nelson Graves is the founder of News-Decoder. He was a correspondent, bureau chief and regional managing editor at Reuters, holding posts in Washington, Paris, New Delhi, Kuala Lumpur, Milan and Tokyo. He later served as admissions director at Johns Hopkins University’s graduate program in international relations in Europe, and has worked with schools around the world as a teacher and trustee.