Dataship fellow Will Cleas Nlemvo: 'Why not try?' | In focus | DW | 15.10.2020
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In focus

Dataship fellow Will Cleas Nlemvo: 'Why not try?'

Will Cleas Nlemvo, a journalist from the DRC, proved from the beginning that he had the determination needed for data journalism. When he applied for the Dataship there was no internet in DRC, but that didn't stop him.

DW Akademie: Why did you apply for the Dataship?

Will: I applied to DW Akademie’s “Dataship - the Data Journalism Fellowship” after stumbling across the advertisement by chance after one of my Facebook friends shared a post about it. After reading the fellowship requirements, I thought to myself: "I'm a young journalist with some data journalism experience, so why not try?

What was your Dataship project about?

My project was about establishing an assessment of the number of road accidents in the DRC capital Kinshasa and to identify the most dangerous roads.

What were the most important lessons you learned?

I learned some new skills that I didn’t have before, specifically about how to manage large amounts of data, which tools to use when gathering data, how we could use HTML, CSS and JavaScript for data visualization, etc. I also got networking experience. I’ve been linked with other data journalists from all around the world. They all came together in Hamburg in September 2019 for the 11th Global Investigative Journalism Conference, the biggest gathering of its kind. I was able to build a network of data and investigative journalists from all around the world.

How will the Dataship help you with your future work?

All these lessons I got from the Dataship are increasingly helping me to improve my way of practising data journalism. I can now work on some projects that I was finding complicated before.

What were your most memorable moments from the Dataship?

I liked the public speaking session. During our third meeting in January, we had the unique chance to present our projects an event organized by Hacks/Hackers, an international grassroots orgnization that focuses on technology and journalism. That was my first time making a speech in English before an audience.

What were the main challenges for you?

The main challenge was the language, first off! The application was calling for young journalists with good listening and speaking in English, and I was raised only with French as mother language. My level of English at the time was too low, but I really didn’t want to miss out on this opportunity. In the end, I decided to move forward with the application. If I wasn't selected because of my English that would be okay. The most important thing was to try rather than do nothing out of fear. 

I also applied when my country was going through a difficult time. The internet had been shut down during the election process. To submit my application I had to travel towards the river that acts as the border between DRC and neighboring Republic of the Congo. From there, I was able to access the internet. A few months after I applied, the internet was reinstated in DRC, and one day, I received an email telling me that I had been shortlisted.