I’ve done what I love doing most of my life. I’ve been very fortunate in this way. When I worked as a journo and photographer, I found my calling working with NGOs. I could work without a translator as I speak at least four languages fluently, and I had great connections, also known as ‘fixers’, who took me where I wanted to go without having to worry about who was picking up the tab.

Like most journos, finding time to apply for funding is hard, to say the least. Although grant applications to fund journalistic work aren’t as complicated as for applying for funding an editing process in fiction, I find it difficult to not spend hours on end trying to make a strong case for myself. I mean, how do you convince the people who you want to give you money, that using the dodgiest fixer so-and-so will return the most important story on the displaced people of such-and-such? That I should be more important than other applicants seems almost impossible. Not only do I struggle to describe my idea in a way that those people will easily comprehend—as my work methods in the field are mostly improvised and somewhat dubious—but I also fear I won’t be able to convince them that the outcome is somehow vital to their overall funding goals.