Klaartje Jaspers is an independent journalist. Treasuring her independence, she thoroughly researches the topic at hand before she goes public. In doing so, she likes to combine narratives and personal observations with related data and insights from the sciences. After studying Interdisciplinary Social Sciences at the University of Utrecht, Klaartje specialized in Development Studies, focusing on rural development in Sub-Saharan Africa. To do this, she took additional courses in African Studies, Environmental Management (Institute of Environmental Sciences, Leiden University) and Medical Anthropology (University of Amsterdam). She devoted her concluding research to the coordination between different NGOs working in the Kavango region, in the far north of Namibia. After graduating, she continued with a post-academic journalism degree (PDOJ) at Erasmus University Rotterdam. Since 2002, she has been working as a freelance journalist, investigating a range of global issues and looking for stories that can breach gaps between different audiences.