I’m super excited to spot myself on the longlist for a Guardian competition for international development journalism. My piece, entitled Women fight for life, is among 20 articles by professional journalists that will now be whittled down to eight. The lucky writers selected will then be packed off to foreign countries to write about a particular development issue. Eight amateur writers will also be chosen from a parallel longlist of 20, and will also do the same. At this point our pieces are anonymised, while judging continues over the coming weeks. Fingers crossed!!!!

My piece looks at some of the issues facing women in India that I have come across during my work visits there over the past couple of years. The baby mentioned in my intro is pictured above.