The Place at the End of the World

War correspondent Janine di Giovanni has covered almost every major armed conflict in the world since the 1990s.

- Vineetha Mokkil

"How do you write about war?" Janine di Giovanni repeats the question, pausing for a second. She is speaking over the phone from Paris where she lives with her young son, Luca Girodon. In a few days, she is scheduled for surgery. There is no trace of self-pity in her voice when she brings it up. It's a fact, not a tragedy. "The most effective way to write about war is to tell the human story," says the veteran journalist. "You try to find out how people survive; how families forage for food and keep kids warm. How they deal with unimaginable loss. War robs people of everything: homes and jobs, water, food, electricity. It brings disease and starvation and rips apart society, but in the midst of all that suffering, you also see tremendous stories of human strength." Her mission has been to share these stories so people everywhere could put themselves in the shoes of those who live in war zones.

Whether reporting from Syria or Lebanon, Sarajevo or Rwanda, she has always focused on sharing the human cost of war. The aim is to empathise, not sensationalise. To spend time with people whose lives are ruptured by violence, to write about the "small voices" that are often neglected.

"Articles, books-everything I've written-is meant to help my readers experience what it actually feels like to be in a war zone, what life is like there," she says. She is a staunch believer in the power of human rights reporting. This keeps her going in a world that is perpetually at war.

The war in Gaza leaves her distraught. "So many Palestinians have become homeless," she says. "People are starving; they don't have blankets to shield themselves from the cold. Pregnant women give birth without anaesthetics because of a shortage." Women, she points out, are the first casualty of any war.