Pittsburgh Reporter Wins Pan American Public Health Reporting Award

Washington, August 27, 2002 (PAHO) - Marisol Bello, a special projects reporter for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, has won the Pan American Health Organization's U.S. contest for best public health reporting for a special section on "Haiti, Mission of Hope." In eight pages of stories, Bello chronicled "The desperate state of health care in Haiti and what western Pennsylvanians are doing to help. "

Bello and photographer Joe Appel spent two weeks traversing Haiti's arid central region, first with a mission of Pittsburgh doctors and later visiting one of the nation's largest hospitals, the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Deschapelles, which was founded by William and Gwen Mellon in 1956.

Bello, who holds a bachelor's degree in journalism and Latin American studies from New York University, has worked at the Pittsburgh newspaper for three years, and has won state awards for previous projects. The Tribune-Review entry included 12 stories, numerous photographs, maps, drawings, and statistics about health in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

The Pan American Health Organization's Centennial Journalism Award, open to all professional journalists working for newspapers in the Americas, was established in honor of the Organization's 100th anniversary, being celebrated this year. Criteria for the PAHO award for excellence in coverage of international public health issues included content, style, and research.

The winner of the U.S. contest was selected by a panel of independent judges, and is automatically entered in the hemisphere-wide award competition. The U.S. winner receives a $1,500 prize, and the Pan American winner is invited to Washington D.C. in late September to receive the award during the Pan American Sanitary Conference, the policy-setting body composed of ministers of health from all countries in the Americas.

PAHO, which also serves as the Regional Office for the Americas of the World Health Organization, was established officially in 1902. It is celebrating 100 years of work with all the countries of the Americas to improve the health and raise the living standards of their peoples.

For more information, please contact: Daniel Epstein, Office of Public Information, (202) 974-3459, e-mail: epsteind@paho.org.