Our media organization, founded and led by women passionate about in-depth solutions journalism, has been honored by the jury of Costa Rica’s Pío Víquez National Journalism Award for an edition sponsored by the Fundación Yamuni Tabush.
During our October 2022 edition, “Las Titas” (“The Grandmothers”), five talented mother-photojournalists chronicled the challenges facing senior citizens who are caring for their parents and grandchildren in very different socioeconomic contexts around Costa Rica. The edition also included columns, podcasts, and solutions journalism that investigated the impact of efforts to improve the lives of the nation’s caregivers. “Las Titas” won First Honorable Mention from the Pío Víquez National Journalism Award, one of the National Culture Awards presented each year by the Ministry of Culture and Youth.
For our small business, this recognition is a huge accomplishment. We are so grateful to everyone who played a part in creating the edition that was honored, including edition sponsor Fundación Yamuni Tabush, represented by Mary Lys Orozco in the photo above. This foundation is a leading advocate for senior citizens in Costa Rica. We could never have hired and compensated this outstanding team of female photojournalists without the foundation’s decision to support in-depth, independent reporting on the topic of senior caregivers.
What’s more, the team at Yamuni Tabush also chose to have the photos printed for an exhibit that Mónica set up at the First National Congress of Aging-Friendly Cities and Communities, held at the Costa Rican Convention Center in Heredia. This exhibit is now available for display around the country, and will help the edition continue to raise awareness of this important topic in the months ahead.
As editors, working with these photojournalists was a career highlight. Gloría Calderón, Andrea Del Mar, Priscilla Mora, and Glorianna Ximendaz joined our Mónica Quesada to tell the stories you’ll find below. Their commitment and love for the project, despite the professional and caregiving obligations they themselves juggled throughout the edition, surpassed our wildest dreams. Other contributors to the edition included Nivaria Perera; Andrea Terán of the Yamuni Tabush Foundation; Javier Del Monte of Spain’s Jubilares Association; Katherine Stanley Obando; and Emma Jane Obando Stanley.
We offer our congratulations to the other journalists and media honored: Esteban Oviedo and Natasha Cambronero of La Nación with the Pío Víquez Award, and Luis Ramírez, Ignacio Fernández and Antonio Jiménez of Ameliarueda.com with the Second Honorable Mention.
Our final and most important recognitions go to our readers, without whose attention and support our work would not be possible—and to the extraordinary women and men who opened their homes to us for “Las Titas.” They are, in the order in which the stories were published, Beatriz Lizano Alvarado of Palmares, Alajuela; Gustavo Rojas Antillón of Puriscal, San José; Tamara Osnovikova of Tamarindo, Guanacaste; Eugenia Juan Santiago of Sixaola, Limón; and Rocío Monge and Enrique Barreda of Tibás, San José. To these hardworking and thoughtful caregivers who trusted us to witness the most intimate spaces of their lives, we offer our humblest thanks.
Read “Las Titas” here.
grand congratulations to a wonderful project. I know how much work goes into producing anything .
Thank you, Gail!