The Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe (VMCZ) ended the month of September with a bang! Picture a gathering of decorated journalists learning from other decorated journalists and better equipping themselves with skills that will make reading for YOU even more enjoyable (but let’s not forget eating delectable hotel food as well). The workshop was held under the theme “Strengthening Media Watchdog’s role and Reporting Corruption Around Public Finance for Online Content Creators Training.”
The workshop was held 27th of September at the towering Bulawayo Rainbow Hotel. Journalists in attendance ranged from newsroom, freelance and online creators just to name a few and like the watchdogs we are, we panted and gobbled up that information as though our lives depended on it. 
The journalists were taken through the basics of Investigative Journalism by Owen Gagare, editor at The News Hawks. He emphasized how investigative journalism was key to accelerating any writer’s content creation journey, as it requires one to go beyond the ordinary to serve a properly well-investigated article. Exercises accompanied the presentations and we got the chance to put our investigative skills to the test by using methods that were taught throughout the workshop.
Loughty Dube, Executive Director at VMCZ also held it down with a lesson on The Story Matrix that questions the ‘who, what, when, where and how” of any story idea with particular focus on reporting on stories that deal with public funds as the theme of the workshop was centered on that. The day long workshop left attendees with quite a lot to put into practice and is definitely one we wish to be a part of again!
