Rahma Diaa: A multifaceted writer, journalist, trainer, and visionary founder of “”Climate School,”” she has established herself as a leading voice in environmental journalism and advocacy for women’s issues. Her journalism career began in 2009, during which she contributed to prominent Egyptian newspapers and media outlets such as Al-Dustour, Al-Tahrir, Youm7, and Aswat Masriya-Reuters.
With a keen focus on women’s rights and environmental issues, she has continued to pursue her passion for impactful storytelling. Since 2018, she has taken on independent projects, collaborating with a diverse range of local and international organizations, including the International Journalists Network, Al-Sharq-Bloomberg, Raseef22, Vice Arabia, For Science Magazine (the Arabic version of Scientific American), Climate Tracker, ARIJ Investigative Journalism Network, the French Agency for Media Development, and the German Goethe Institute, among others. In her commitment to training the next generation of journalists, she has conducted over 70 hours of training in environmental and climate journalism for hundreds of journalists across more than 20 countries.
Her collaborations with esteemed entities such as the Egyptian Media Women’s Union, the Ozone Platform, the Google News Initiative, Doctors Without Borders Foundation, and the Humanitarian Journalism Foundation (Yemen) highlight her dedication to knowledge sharing in this critical area. In July 2021, she established the Climate School Initiative to empower journalists interested in environmental and climate issues in the Middle East and North Africa.
This initiative has successfully delivered over 50 free training sessions and supported more than 2,000 participants across the region. Furthermore, the Climate School offers production and resource grants, housing the largest Arabic-language library on climate journalism and recently launching a free six-month diploma program dedicated to this field.
Her contributions to journalism have not gone unnoticed, as she has received numerous accolades, including the Heikal Award for Arab Journalism in 2019, the Covering Climate Now International Award in 2021, the Suzanne Zaki Award for the Environment from the Egyptian Ministry of Environment in August 2022, and the Cairo Climate Change Forum Award presented by the German Embassy in Cairo in 2023 among others.