By Willy Ngumbi
With rising cases of disease outbreaks locally and globally, Twitter and Amref Health Africa have renewed their partnership to provide skills and capacity-building training in best practices for health reporting.
The aim of the partnership is to enhance knowledge, build skills and nurture the competencies of journalists, public relations professionals and health managers on all aspects related to health reporting.
“We have always prioritized using the positive power of Twitter to strengthen our communities by surfacing credible, authoritative information. Journalism is core to our service and we have a deep and enduring responsibility to protect that work. We are therefore committed to supporting Amref in their efforts towards ensuring ethical health reporting in order to help people, find reliable information both online and offline”, said Emmanuel Lubanzadio, Head of Public Policy for Sub-Saharan Africa.
Since 2020 when the scholarship was launched, Twitter’s financial contribution has enabled over 40 journalists and health communication professionals to attend the course and strengthen their health reporting skills. The first cohort of the scholarship programme was held between 9 November and 4 December 2020, with 15 participants successfully completing the course. Tuition for the second cohort took place between 9 August and 3 September 2021, with another set of 25 candidates attending the course. In 2022, 10 participants are expected to complete the course.
“The role of media in enhancing public health information is indisputable. Media advocacy for health ensures that the right information gets to the people in order to make informed decisions and also, the right policies are enacted and implemented to achieve a country’s health goals,” Elizabeth Ntonjira, Global Communication Director at Amref said in a statement.
“Media practitioners must therefore, have the right skills and capacity to contribute to improving the health of populations effectively and that’s the goal of this course. This partnership with Twitter is critical in ensuring that media practitioners are knowledgeable, equipped and empowered to tackle health related stories that impact communities.”
