By SADIQ ABUBAKAR, Maiduguri –
The World Health Organization (WHO), in collaboration with Action Against Hunger (AAH), has organized a two-day training workshop for journalists on safety Reporting of COVID-19 pandemic in healthy emergencies in Borno state .
The workshop was the first of its kind to be organized by any Organization as part of its corporate social responsibility for the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) in the state, where over 1000 participants drawn from all the chapels of the union, including the social media reporters, participated
The workshop, which was organized in two phases, kick started on Thursday and ended on Friday, with resource persons from the academia, WHO and Borno State Primary Health Care Development Agency (PHCDA), among others.
It was also organized in two sessions where the first session covered presentation of seminar papers on COVID-19 infection, Prevention and Control (IPC) by Babagama Abiso, the Director, Disease Control, Epidemiology of COVD_19 by Dr. Kin Mohammed ,WHO Surveillance Officer and Overview of COVID-19 Situation: Global,Africa,, Nigeria and Borno State by Dr. Lawi Mshelia of the PHEOC.
While the second session had presentations from senior lecturers drawn from Mass Communication department, University of Maidugur where the first paper dwelt on “Using Data to Deliver Corina Vitus Risk Communication”, presented by Dr. Joseph Wilson, a former HOD.
The second paper was presented by Dr. Musa Usman of the department of Mass Communication, University of Maiduguri titled,” Reporting Corona Virus Pandemic from a Development Communication Perspective: A Case Study of Nigeria
The Coordinator of the training workshop, Dr. China Onuekwe who is also the Health Emergencies Communication Officer of WHO in his welcome address stressed the need for journalists to be trained and exposed in the technicalities and specialised reporting strategies on health emergencies especially the new discovered coronavirus which is popularly known as COVID-19.
He pointed out that the world is now globalized just as the coronavirus has gradually become a global pandemic while emphasizing the need for Journalists as information mangers and officers to always abreast themselves with the accurate facts, data and figures on the prevailing situations locally, nationally and internationally.
Dr. Chima added that what the public wants which the media do not offer during disease outbreak is a risk Communication Perspective.
The State Chairman of the NUJ, Borno State Council, Comrad Bulama Talba in his remarks Commended WHO for it’s foresight, focus and organizing the workshop noting that all the participation benefitted immensely from the two day training while thanking the resource persons for their services.
DISCLAIMER
The OPINION / COLUMN is authored by independent contributors to the National Accord Newspaper. While contributors adhere to our editorial guidelines, they are not employed by the National Accord Newspaper. The perspectives and opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author and do not represent the views of the National Accord Newspaper or its staff.