Teresa Rehman is an award-winning journalist based in Northeast India. Born in the picturesque hillstation Shillong, she started as a trainee journalist with India Today magazine in New Delhi. After a brief sojourn in Delhi, she returned to her roots and has been consistently trying to highlight the myriad hues of this hitherto unexplored and conflict-torn region of the country. She reports on seven states of the Indian union -- Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Tripura, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram.

The region for her is a 'journalist's paradise, full of untold stories of men, women and children waiting to be told. As many journalists based here, she has flirted with danger while visiting militant camps in the region. She has also done stories on child soldiers being recruited by the militant groups in Northeast India.

She has also written stories of hope which has revealed the resilience of the people of the Northeast. She has worked on pertinent issues like impact of militancy on women and children, health, education, rural employment and the disabled. She is particularly interested in issues related to HIV-AIDS, water and sanitation. She also moderates two listservs: Red Ribbon Media and The Sanitation Scribes.

She feels that being recognized for her work is very inspiring. She has been awarded the Sanskriti Award 2009 for Excellence in Journalism (www.sanskritifoundation.org). She was earlier awarded the Seventh Sarojini Naidu Prize 2007 for Best Reporting on Panchayati Raj by The Hunger Project (www.thp.org). She was also honoured with the Kunjabala Devi Memorial Award for Investigative Journalism on Women's issues by The Assam Tribune group in 2003.

Widely-travelled, she had represented India in a 10-day capacity building programme titled "Advancing Women's Leadership in Global AIDS Policymaking" in the US Congress, Washington DC and the United Nations Headquarters, New York, USA in 2008. Rehman was also part of a group of 40 journalists who participated in the World Water Forum, Istanbul, Turkey in 2009. She was also part of the Indian delegation for the first regional conference on the South Asia Women in Media in Lahore, Pakistan in 2009.

She feels that everyday is a learning experience. She has recently completed a course on Reporting HIV/AIDS by Thomson Reuters Foundation at Nairobi, Kenya. She is presently working as Principal Correspondent, Tehelka newsmagazine (www.tehelka.com). She has also worked in the The Telegraph newspaper. For her, unveiling the mystifying facets of this trouble-scarred region has been cathartic - a realisation that underneath the turmoil lies a hope for peace.