When disaster struck Nepal, Rafael Fonseca Cruvinel ‘24 connected with a former visiting scholar at the Marie Colvin Center for International Reporting to obtain eyewitness testimony of the flooding for O Globo, one of Brazil’s leading newspapers.
On August 26, a glacial collapse near the Nepal-China border triggered flash floods, mudslides and debris flow. The impact of the collapse was equivalent to an M5.2 earthquake. More than 1,300 people were killed in Nepal and Tibet, with approximately 5,000 people missing.
Cruvinel traveled to Nepal as a foreign reporter in the Colvin Center’s 2024 Journalism Without Walls program. The visit was coordinated by Shraddha Verma, a Colvin international scholar in Fall 2023.
Cruvinel is based in Rio de Janeiro for a training program at O Globo. Working as a journalist, he reached out to Verma, who worked until recently as an expert in child trafficking issues and an advocate for young women’s rights in Nepal.
“Shraddha was able to help me, and a few hours later I was talking to two people impacted by the floods. My report ended up going in the print paper, as well as being posted online,” said Cruvinel.
While a journalism student at Stony Brook, Cruvinel won a Hearst Journalism Award in feature writing and was managing editor of The Stony Brook Press. After graduating from the School of Communication and Journalism, Cruvinel completed a master’s degree in publishing at New York University before returning to his native Brazil.
“I am proud of the global connections the Colvin Center has been able to foster,” said Sarah Baxter, director of the Colvin Center. “Rafael is an outstanding trilingual journalist who is making the most of the skills and contacts he acquired through Stony Brook.”
The Center’s Journalism Without Walls program has granted foreign reporting opportunities for students in Berlin, Sweden, Moldova, Kenya and Korea. Next summer’s destination will be Argentina.
Colvin international scholars have been hosted from Cambodia, Slovakia, Ukraine, Moldova, Indonesia and the West Bank through the IREX Community Solutions program.
— Melanie Formosa
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