A grant scheme which helps black journalists into work by providing grants for work experience placements has celebrated its 15th anniversary.

The National Unnion of Journalists’ George Viner Memorial Fund, named after a former NUJ Training Organiser, was founded in 1986. And since then, it has donated £70,000 for course fees and books to 95 people.

Thirteen journalists who benefited from the fund enjoyed a reunion party as part of the celebrations.

This year three students were awarded grants to help with their studies – Jacqueline Carol, Shumon Rahman and Carina Wint.

Swindon Evening Advertiser journalist, Bhavani Vadde, was the winner of the 2002 Felix Dearden memorial prize and picked up a £500 cheque for her race relations article ‘Brown faces are not enough’.

The cheques were presented to the winners by Lord Dholakia, president of the Liberal Democrats and a sponsor of the fund.

He said: “I am not interested in black people being applauded as tokens, just because they are black, but because they have ability. When I see young black people coming along, that makes me think, these are role models, there are no heights we cannot climb.”

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