
Jason Beaubien
Jason Beaubien is NPR's Global Health and Development Correspondent on the Science Desk.
In this role, he reports on a range of issues across the world. He's covered the plight of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, mass cataract surgeries in Ethiopia, abortion in El Salvador, poisonous gold mines in Nigeria, drug-resistant malaria in Myanmar and tuberculosis in Tajikistan. He was part of a team of reporters at NPR that won a Peabody Award in 2015 for their extensive coverage of the West Africa Ebola outbreak. His current beat also examines development issues including why Niger has the highest birth rate in the world, can private schools serve some of the poorest kids on the planet and the links between obesity and economic growth.
Prior to becoming the Global Health and Development Correspondent in 2012, Beaubien spent four years based in Mexico City covering Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. In that role, Beaubien filed stories on politics in Cuba, the 2010 Haitian earthquake, the FMLN victory in El Salvador, the world's richest man and Mexico's brutal drug war.
For his first multi-part series as the Mexico City correspondent, Beaubien drove the length of the U.S./Mexico border making a point to touch his toes in both oceans. The stories chronicled the economic, social and political changes along the violent frontier.
In 2002, Beaubien joined NPR after volunteering to cover a coup attempt in the Ivory Coast. Over the next four years, Beaubien worked as a foreign correspondent in sub-Saharan Africa, visiting 27 countries on the continent. His reporting ranged from poverty on the world's poorest continent, the HIV in the epicenter of the epidemic, and the all-night a cappella contests in South Africa, to Afro-pop stars in Nigeria and a trial of white mercenaries in Equatorial Guinea.
During this time, he covered the famines and wars of Africa, as well as inspiring preachers and Nobel laureates. Beaubien was one of the first journalists to report on the huge exodus of people out of Sudan's Darfur region into Chad, as villagers fled some of the initial attacks by the Janjawid. He reported extensively on the steady deterioration of Zimbabwe and still has a collection of worthless Zimbabwean currency.
In 2006, Beaubien was awarded a Knight-Wallace fellowship at the University of Michigan to study the relationship between the developed and the developing world.
Beaubien grew up in Maine, started his radio career as an intern at NPR Member Station KQED in San Francisco and worked at WBUR in Boston before joining NPR.
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The New Humanitarian first reported on the scandal from the Ebola crisis in 2020. Now the WHO has issued its own report, citing 83 allegations. And it's drawing criticism for investigating itself.
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Relief supplies are reaching the quake zone, but slowly. Health care workers are exhausted, some at their jobs 24 hours a day as Haiti struggles to care for those affected by the 7.2 magnitude quake.
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COVID-19 vaccination rates remain perilously low around the world. The WHO has called for a moratorium on booster shots until every country can immunize at least 10% of its population.
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Haiti received its first shipment of doses in July, just days after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse — and amid rising violence, poverty and the hurricane season.
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"Our beach is a God-given thing," exclaims one Sierra Leonean. "We have to make use of it!" That means walking, working out ... and lots of soccer in the sand.
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With gangs controlling the most destitute areas of the capital, Port-au-Prince, Haitians say the country's greatest need is safety. Many blame Jovenel Moïse for the collapse of law and order.
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The investigation into the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse is looking closely at the role the president's security detail played the night of his death.
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MIT grad David Moinina Sengeh is shooting for the moon when it comes to Sierra Leone's future, from schools to health-care to ... space travel. Oh, and he makes music on the side.
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Haiti's police chief says they've detained 17 suspects. And that three other suspects were killed by police and eight more are on the run.
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The challenge of refrigerating COVID-19 vaccines is acute in sub-Saharan Africa, where only 28% of health care facilities have reliable power. One solution? A new kind of freezer powered by the sun.