Good morning from Malaysia!

I got up at 6 am (2 hours before my usual time) today excited about my first conference call with my fellow correspondents and the WP team! It was so great to hear from Klaudia, Nechesa, Eunice, Zoe & Delphine.

And just over the weekend, I connected with my mentors - my triad...we will be taking time to get to know each other better this coming week.

I now feel energised to start my day and continue the rest of my week knowing that the next 5 months will be invigorating thanks to the wonderful women who will be there to support me throughout this process.

My mind is everywhere thinking of the different stories I could write about to bring to the forefront the issues that women in my community face...it is going to be an extremely busy 5 months but I am glad it is as a result of something that I am passionate about - it makes all the difference. And I do hope I make a difference with my writing.

This is the start of my new journey towards becoming an effective citizen journalist....I want to be the voice of the women in my community and I want to do it well because each of their stories is worth all the effort (and more) I take to portray it as it is...let my words, video/audio/photos speak for itself. May the spirit of this programme guide me through this process.

I am truly honoured and blessed to have been awarded this role. More soon...

Gaya :)