The participants with community members after the first session
Women, Media & Change (WOMEC), a non-governmental organisation (NGO), has held a day’s training for media personalities from the Eastern, Volta and Greater Accra regions on effective communication and packaging of research evidence on reproductive health issues.
The training, held at Kpeve in the South Dayi District of the Volta Region, under the ‘catalysing leadership to improve women, new born, child & adolescent well-being (WNCAW)’ project, exposed journalists to public health issues that affect vulnerable groups as well as built their capacity to report on gaps in the health system.
The Executive Director for WOMEC, Dr. Charity Binka, who took the participants through skills development, said reproductive health, which is often tagged as women, adolescents and children’s issues, also affects men.
She said it was, therefore, important for society to treat reproductive health as they would treat other human right issues, adding that the media’s role in changing the trend cannot be overemphasized.
Dr. Binka, however, noted that in order for the media to play their educative role effectively, journalists need to be equipped with the requisite tools and skills to engage the citizenry and to hold policymakers accountable for the health outcomes of citizens.
She said the media must strive to go a step further in their duties and analyse by-laws, policies and documents on reproductive health to have an in-depth understanding of the issues.
Dr. Binka also directed participants to focus on areas of accessibility, affordability and quality of the health services provided to the target group.
“If you don’t question the system, the plans will always remain the same. We are ambassadors and we need to channel these messages across,” she added.
She further disclosed that through the network of trained journalists, the WNCAW project would engage policymakers and hold them accountable to WNCAW commitments and community score card (CSC) findings in policy development and implementation.
Dr. Binka also challenged the media personalities to put in an extra effort in reporting on reproductive health issues, indicating that an award scheme for excellence in WNCAW reporting would be instituted to motivate journalists.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri