Jamela Alindogan: Where Courage Lives
Award-winning journalist and humanitarian Jamela Alindogan has told others’ stories for decades. Here, she shares how her work has shaped her own views and definition of beauty.
“Oh, there are so many stories.”
We’ve just asked Jamela Alindogan, veteran journalist and former Al Jazeera English correspondent, and founder of non-profit organization Sinagtala Centre for Women and Children in Conflict, if there’s been a single defining moment in her journalism career where she truly felt like she was giving a voice to something or someone that had to be heard, and she’s hard pressed to pick one.
This is a woman who has covered wars, disasters, and political unrest across the globe—from all over Southeast Asia, to Nigeria, to conflict-ridden Mindanao, where her presence was so frequent in war zones that she shares, “When the soldiers saw me, they knew something bad would happen. They’d be like, ‘Why are you here?’” She has been on the receiving end of threats and danger, survived the onslaught of Haiyan in Tacloban that killed thousands, and reported from the ground during the Marawi siege, in which she met so many displaced women and children that she organized a safe haven for them, birthing the concept of the Sinagtala crisis center.
“I think it’s very hard to point out just one,” she explains. “But I think—and I think that other journalists can relate to this—that you are not defined or marked by one single story, rather, you are a composition of the many stories that you’ve encountered over the years. And you carry them with you.”
Throughout the course of a career that has spanned nearly two decades, the multi-awarded Alindogan has been a voice for the voiceless countless times. These days, she has chosen to focus her time and attention on the work she does through Sinagtala. Alindogan, who is also a mother, continues to speak out for those who cannot, albeit this time, in a different capacity.
“I was wracked with a lot of guilt, for leaving my son to go to conflict zones, and then guilt when I had to leave the people I met to go back to the comforts of my home,” she shares. “Humanitarian work gave me a sense of balance, that I’m not just taking people’s stories, that I’m also going back to all of these communities and doing something [for them].”
Sinagtala serves internally displaced persons, with a special focus on women and children. What began as an immediate response to the faces that met Alindogan in Marawi grew into the aforementioned crisis center, which multiplied into seven across Lanao after a five month-long war.
Jerick Sanchez
“Of course, I couldn’t just give up after that,” Alindogan says. “The next year, I registered the NGO, found funding, and continued work in Marawi, and then in Sulu.” In Sulu, Sinagtala works with the most marginalized of women—the widows, wives, daughters of rebel families. This has given Alindogan a renewed sense of purpose. “When you’re reporting, you feel your hands are tied sometimes,” Alindogan muses. “You always wish there’s something more you can do. With Sinagtala, I can completely assist people. I think I like that a lot,” she says with a smile.
As a journalist, Alindogan has seen much, has lived many lives. Its essence remains at the core of what Alindogan continues to do. “I think real, honest, courageous journalism is always remembering that we speak for the minority. It’s amplifying voices and using yourself as a channel for those who need to be heard.”
Something else that Alindogan has learned from the field, is, in the tradition of Allure Philippines, a reframing of her own personal definition of beauty. “[I’ve learned] that beauty and strength go side by side,” she shares. “When you have a certain inner strength, you are beautiful. Women in Sulu who normally don’t have a mirror at home, because they live in a tent city or they are displaced—you meet them and they have so much grace, in the way they carry themselves, and the stories that they carry with them,” Alindogan says, her own eyes shining with all the stories she herself carries within. “That, to me, is the definition of beauty.”
Art direction by Nicole Almero. Beauty direction by Larissa Joson. Makeup by Booya, assisted by Grace Robiato. Hair by Patty Inojales. Styling by Gee Jocson, assisted by Eru. Photographer’s assistants: Karl Rimando and Dave Orpilla.
