Member Spotlight
Furhana Afrid

Out of Africa to San Francisco, California and now in Big Sky country.

The passion to interact with people from all over the globe and tell their stories through a camera lens brought Furhana Afrid from Kenya to the U.S.

Her debut on television began as a host for a daily current affairs program for Nation TV in Nairobi, Kenya, giving her the opportunity to facilitate discussions on critical issues impacting Kenyans.

Her growing interest in news reporting led her to move to San Francisco, California where she trained as a television journalist while studying for a graduate degree in radio and television studies at San Francisco State University. (more)

Furhana interned at several media outlets in San Francisco including CBS affiliate KPIX, former NBC affiliate KRON 4, Tech TV, World Link TV and the Center for Investigative Reporting.

She reported for cable channel 27 and hosted discussion shows including a panel on the Bay Area’s news coverage of the 9-11 terrorist attacks and the impact of overseas workers on California’s technology industry.

Furhana recently received an award from the South Asia Journalists Association for an in-depth report on the impact of 9-11 news coverage on Bay Area Muslims.

Before joining KXLF-TV in October 2006, Furhana was a reporter for India-West, a South Asian newspaper in California.

She speaks Punjabi, Urdu and Hindu, spoken in South Asia, and Swahili, Kenya’s native language.

Furhana is a member of American Women in Radio and TV, Asian American Journalists Association, RTNDA and South Asia Journalists Association.

As a one-woman-band in a small market station, she has worn many different hats. She shoots, edits, writes, produces and does live reporting. Furhana saids “you get better at taking good video, writing faster and editing under tight deadlines. Several of my stories have come from meeting people at places they go to regularly – the courthouse, the highway patrol, the state capitol, local laundromat and the post office. They have interesting stories to share about themselves or someone they know. Notice boards also make a great resource for story ideas. There’s basically a story everywhere, around each corner”.

In the past two months, Furhana has covered several interesting stories including the Beijing-based Chinese ambassador’s visit to Butte with Senator Max Baucus. She’s also had the opportunity to report on the November 2006 elections and spoke to several candidates running for office.

Furhana has also found that a number of Butte residents are working with international communities on a variety of issues – HIV, Education and Health. One of her stories looked into a doctor’s outreach into East Africa by helping to create families by bringing together widows and orphans.