The recently concluded media empowerment workshop for Health journalists in Nigeria organised by Ruyi Communications Limited in partnership with the Public Affairs Section of the American Embassy at the Planet One, Lagos between November 26 and 28 and Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja between December 3rd and 5th may have come and gone without much adulation in the media. Nevertheless, it is important to review some salient aspects of this unique capacity building initiative that underscored, even from the large turnout of participants, its timeliness and desirability to a professional calling that is in dire need of re-tooling (Close to two hundred health journalists across print and electronic media in the county participated at the Lagos leg while slightly less than a hundred attended the Abuja leg).
That the organisers set out to equip Nigerian health journalists with the badly needed modern skills in community health reporting as well as broaden their professional horizon was never in doubt. The calibre of resource persons and moderators was enough evidence. Three experienced American media trainers - Duncan Moore, accomplished writer and editor as well as founding president of the Association of Healthcare Journalists; Bob Hirshon, popular host of “Science Update”, a daily science radio show on more than 400 radio stations in US and Andrew Holts, former CNN medical correspondent and 1998 Kaiser media fellow- in addition to three other respected Nigerian media practitioners - Moji Makanjuola, Head of Health Desk, Nigerian Television Authority(NTA); Akin Jimoh, former Health editor, The Guardian and now Programme Director, Development Communications Network (a non-governmental organisation engaged in media development and capacity building and Funke Treasure Durodola, finalist in the Henry J. Kaiser HIV Journalism Category at the 2007 CNN/Multichoice African Journalist of the Year Awards - focused on topics ranging from personal hygiene to sourcing health stories from non-health developments, among others.
Another interesting aspect of the Workshop was contained in the opening remarks of the American consul-general in Nigeria, Vicki Hutchinson, at the Lagos workshop. While noting that healthy communities are the backbone of every great nation,
Ms. Hutchinson also used the opportunity to give a broader insight into her home country’s commitment to the global efforts against HIV/AIDS, especially as it concerns Nigeria. To quote her, “In 2003, President George Bush announced the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief – PEPFAR- a five-year, $15 billion, multifaceted approach to combating HIV/AIDS globally. In May of this year, President Bush announced a doubling of the initial commitment to a total of $30 billion. PEPFAR supports diverse prevention, treatment and care programs, with an emphasis on transparency and accountability for results. The heart of this initiative is a partnership with the government and people of Nigeria to build a locally-driven response to the pandemic. Nigeria is one of the PEPFAR’s 15 countries of focus; from 2004 to 2007, Nigeria received more than $648 million dollars in assistance;
and PEPFAR has achieved encouraging results, such as free diagnosis and antiretroviral treatment for those infected with HIV, community outreach for HIV awareness and prevention, and providing care and support to children orphaned by AIDS, as well as other vulnerable children”.
She listed some of PEPFAR’s significant contributions to Nigeria's HIV response as including the following:
More than 900,000 people have been reached with HIV counselling and testing;
More than 250,000 pregnant women have been provided with health services for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and;
More than 80,000 men, women and children are on anti-retroviral therapy.
Atim George, Chief Information Counsellor, US Embassy, Abuja corroborated the above facts in her opening remarks during the Abuja version of the workshop.
On the home front, the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), a major sponsor of the workshop, stole the show at the Abuja workshop with a beautiful presentation on the Health challenges of the Niger Delta residents and efforts of the commission to provide succour. In his presentation, Dr. Princewill Ekanim, NDDC’s Deputy Director, Planning, Research and Statistics, representing the Commission’s Managing Director, Mr Timi Alaibe, revealed that water related diseases account for 80% of reported illnesses in the region, as a result of years of unchecked environmental degradation, water contamination, improper waste management practices, long distances between health facilities, poor service delivery, and infiltration of the health service delivery system by charlatans.
His submission on efforts of the commission towards finding a lasting solution to the health problems of the people of Niger Delta as documented in the Niger Delta Regional Development Master Plan received a standing ovation from participants, especially in the area of Free Health Mission under which over 50,000 less privileged indigenes have benefited from free dentistry and eye surgery. The consensus of participants’ opinion is that with what the commission has achieved so far in the area of strengthening health institutions as well as capacity building to enhance health service delivery, it is a matter of short time for the quality of life to improve in the Niger Delta area.
Also, the Director General of National Agency for the Control of Aids (NACA), Prof. Babatunde Oshotimehin, took participants through the experiences, challenges and discoveries with regards to Aids awareness and control in Nigeria while Dr. Morhanson-Bello of the University College Hospital, Ibadan (representing Dr.Oladosu Ojengbede) led a demonstration session on the use of anti-shock garment (also known as Life wrap) to save lives and protect women from the effects of post-partum haemorrhage, thereby controlling the worrisome growth of maternal mortality in the country.
In their separate comments, both Soni Irabor, CEO of Ruyi Communications, and Tim Gerhardson, Public Affairs Officer of US Embassy, dwelled on the abundant opportunities waiting to be tapped by Nigerian journalists through collaborative efforts such as the workshop present. They also stressed that the media training programme is aimed at paying more attention to quality and accuracy of reporting while imbibing in the reporter the need to develop the habit of investigating and researching the facts of the stories they cover. Training programmes, such as the workshop, they submitted, are designed to complement the efforts of media
organizations that pay attention to training and retraining of their personnel or those practitioners who believe in developing themselves and their practice.
From the submissions of the trainers, it is clear that the challenges facing the health journalist remain the same regardless of the country of practice. However, while American journalists, buoyed by the availability of sound structure, legislations and other facilities that promote excellence, have been able to overcome several of their handicaps to discharge their assignments admirably, Nigerian journalists remain largely ineffectual due to several socio-economic and political factors that the country generally is still contending with.
This development perhaps, informed the submission by Duncan Moore that the workshop was in response to the realization that reporters, wherever they find themselves, especially medical reporters, wield great power and shoulder a great burden of responsibility, as they inform the public on issues that are literally matters of life and death, thereby making adequate knowledge base and ethics, paramount in the discharge of their noble responsibility to the society.
In summary, the Workshop for Health journalists which is the second in the series of media empowerment initiatives jointly organised by Ruyi Communications Ltd and the Public Affairs Section of the American Embassy in Nigeria (the first was organised for political correspondents a few weeks before the 2007 elections) no doubt fills a yawning gap in the efforts to develop the Nigerian society through the creation and sustenance of a vibrant, viable, responsive and world class media working environment. For this reason one can only say a big “thank you” to the organisers- Ruyi Communications and US Embassy-, the sponsors- NDDC and ARM Investment Managers- as well as the trainers.
- END -
(Omorinade John, a Lagos based freelance journalist, sent in this piece from Ikoyi, Lagos.)
That the organisers set out to equip Nigerian health journalists with the badly needed modern skills in community health reporting as well as broaden their professional horizon was never in doubt. The calibre of resource persons and moderators was enough evidence. Three experienced American media trainers - Duncan Moore, accomplished writer and editor as well as founding president of the Association of Healthcare Journalists; Bob Hirshon, popular host of “Science Update”, a daily science radio show on more than 400 radio stations in US and Andrew Holts, former CNN medical correspondent and 1998 Kaiser media fellow- in addition to three other respected Nigerian media practitioners - Moji Makanjuola, Head of Health Desk, Nigerian Television Authority(NTA); Akin Jimoh, former Health editor, The Guardian and now Programme Director, Development Communications Network (a non-governmental organisation engaged in media development and capacity building and Funke Treasure Durodola, finalist in the Henry J. Kaiser HIV Journalism Category at the 2007 CNN/Multichoice African Journalist of the Year Awards - focused on topics ranging from personal hygiene to sourcing health stories from non-health developments, among others.
Another interesting aspect of the Workshop was contained in the opening remarks of the American consul-general in Nigeria, Vicki Hutchinson, at the Lagos workshop. While noting that healthy communities are the backbone of every great nation,
Ms. Hutchinson also used the opportunity to give a broader insight into her home country’s commitment to the global efforts against HIV/AIDS, especially as it concerns Nigeria. To quote her, “In 2003, President George Bush announced the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief – PEPFAR- a five-year, $15 billion, multifaceted approach to combating HIV/AIDS globally. In May of this year, President Bush announced a doubling of the initial commitment to a total of $30 billion. PEPFAR supports diverse prevention, treatment and care programs, with an emphasis on transparency and accountability for results. The heart of this initiative is a partnership with the government and people of Nigeria to build a locally-driven response to the pandemic. Nigeria is one of the PEPFAR’s 15 countries of focus; from 2004 to 2007, Nigeria received more than $648 million dollars in assistance;
and PEPFAR has achieved encouraging results, such as free diagnosis and antiretroviral treatment for those infected with HIV, community outreach for HIV awareness and prevention, and providing care and support to children orphaned by AIDS, as well as other vulnerable children”.
She listed some of PEPFAR’s significant contributions to Nigeria's HIV response as including the following:
More than 900,000 people have been reached with HIV counselling and testing;
More than 250,000 pregnant women have been provided with health services for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and;
More than 80,000 men, women and children are on anti-retroviral therapy.
Atim George, Chief Information Counsellor, US Embassy, Abuja corroborated the above facts in her opening remarks during the Abuja version of the workshop.
On the home front, the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), a major sponsor of the workshop, stole the show at the Abuja workshop with a beautiful presentation on the Health challenges of the Niger Delta residents and efforts of the commission to provide succour. In his presentation, Dr. Princewill Ekanim, NDDC’s Deputy Director, Planning, Research and Statistics, representing the Commission’s Managing Director, Mr Timi Alaibe, revealed that water related diseases account for 80% of reported illnesses in the region, as a result of years of unchecked environmental degradation, water contamination, improper waste management practices, long distances between health facilities, poor service delivery, and infiltration of the health service delivery system by charlatans.
His submission on efforts of the commission towards finding a lasting solution to the health problems of the people of Niger Delta as documented in the Niger Delta Regional Development Master Plan received a standing ovation from participants, especially in the area of Free Health Mission under which over 50,000 less privileged indigenes have benefited from free dentistry and eye surgery. The consensus of participants’ opinion is that with what the commission has achieved so far in the area of strengthening health institutions as well as capacity building to enhance health service delivery, it is a matter of short time for the quality of life to improve in the Niger Delta area.
Also, the Director General of National Agency for the Control of Aids (NACA), Prof. Babatunde Oshotimehin, took participants through the experiences, challenges and discoveries with regards to Aids awareness and control in Nigeria while Dr. Morhanson-Bello of the University College Hospital, Ibadan (representing Dr.Oladosu Ojengbede) led a demonstration session on the use of anti-shock garment (also known as Life wrap) to save lives and protect women from the effects of post-partum haemorrhage, thereby controlling the worrisome growth of maternal mortality in the country.
In their separate comments, both Soni Irabor, CEO of Ruyi Communications, and Tim Gerhardson, Public Affairs Officer of US Embassy, dwelled on the abundant opportunities waiting to be tapped by Nigerian journalists through collaborative efforts such as the workshop present. They also stressed that the media training programme is aimed at paying more attention to quality and accuracy of reporting while imbibing in the reporter the need to develop the habit of investigating and researching the facts of the stories they cover. Training programmes, such as the workshop, they submitted, are designed to complement the efforts of media
organizations that pay attention to training and retraining of their personnel or those practitioners who believe in developing themselves and their practice.
From the submissions of the trainers, it is clear that the challenges facing the health journalist remain the same regardless of the country of practice. However, while American journalists, buoyed by the availability of sound structure, legislations and other facilities that promote excellence, have been able to overcome several of their handicaps to discharge their assignments admirably, Nigerian journalists remain largely ineffectual due to several socio-economic and political factors that the country generally is still contending with.
This development perhaps, informed the submission by Duncan Moore that the workshop was in response to the realization that reporters, wherever they find themselves, especially medical reporters, wield great power and shoulder a great burden of responsibility, as they inform the public on issues that are literally matters of life and death, thereby making adequate knowledge base and ethics, paramount in the discharge of their noble responsibility to the society.
In summary, the Workshop for Health journalists which is the second in the series of media empowerment initiatives jointly organised by Ruyi Communications Ltd and the Public Affairs Section of the American Embassy in Nigeria (the first was organised for political correspondents a few weeks before the 2007 elections) no doubt fills a yawning gap in the efforts to develop the Nigerian society through the creation and sustenance of a vibrant, viable, responsive and world class media working environment. For this reason one can only say a big “thank you” to the organisers- Ruyi Communications and US Embassy-, the sponsors- NDDC and ARM Investment Managers- as well as the trainers.
- END -
(Omorinade John, a Lagos based freelance journalist, sent in this piece from Ikoyi, Lagos.)
