Hellen Shikanda

I am a print journalist mainly covering Health and Science stories. I always have been fascinated by crime stories, I still am, but during my post-campus training as a journalist, I read one book at the Graduate School of Media and Communications; Aga Khan University- The Gut, by Giulia Enders, and science became my go-to beat. Like Giulia Enders, I fancy telling complex stories in a simplistic manner. The process of breaking down science stories and making them relatable to my target audience and still having that flair of language is something I enjoy waking up to every day. I like language, and its flexibility. It is in language that I make people sad, or happy, or shift their mindset, but when there is change and lesson to take home, I feel like an archer who has hit their target at the first shot. In my country, print journalists have been christened -Meat Wrappers-, I proudly am one. Even with the digital disruption, my 'meat wrapping' profession will still live on. Besides writing as a journo, I write fiction, and I'd wish to write a book some day. I envy my mind when words start flowing from it. I am not there yet, I do not know where 'there' is, but, what I know for sure, is that I am on my way; there. If we bump on each other, I hope we learn from one another. The learning, as I have been told, never stops. This was supposed to be a biography, but didn't I warn you of my mind, when I start writing? Oh, writers, and breaking rules...