Meet the next SEW-EGAP (SEPLAA Empowering Women for Economic Growth & Peace) Power Woman for 2016:
Amber Shamsi is an award-winning bilingual correspondent with the BBC World Service, based in Islamabad. She began her journalistic career as an intern at a weekly news magazine, The News on Sunday, while studying for her Bachelor’s degree at Kinnaird College (KC). Journalism offered her an opportunity to understand the world, travel and tell the stories of people who do not have the means or medium to do so themselves. She then went on to study mass communications for her Masters degree at KC. Over the years, as journalism has evolved, Amber honed her craft as a truly multi-media journalist. She has worked for daily newspapers, weekly and monthly news magazines, television, online publications, and radio. Even though she took career breaks to raise her two daughters, she remained affiliated with journalism in some form or the other. In trying to balance her career and motherhood, Amber re-invented herself – from long-form journalism, to copy-editing, writing, reporting, anchoring radio and TV shows, as well as TV production. At the BBC, Amber reports in Urdu, English and sometimes Hindi, for television, radio and online. Juggling between media and languages is a tough ask, but she finds the rewards are multiplied. She has won an award for her reporting and met every-day heroes who shine brighter than the many rapists, criminals and extremists she has interviewed.
Leave a Reply