Over 60 African journalists have been equipped with information to scale up their reportage on Child Health, Immunization, and Nutrition in their respective countries.
The journalists drawn from West and Central Africa, including Madagascar, spent three days from November 21 to 23, 2023.
They heard from Health Specialists with expertise in child health promotion who work with the children-centered international humanitarian organization, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
The Togolese-based organization, African Media Network for the Promotion of Health and the Environment – REMAPSEN, is the lead organization facilitating the First Media Forum on Child Health, Immunization, and Nutrition in Africa.
Stating the objective of the forum, the President of REMAPSEN, Mr Bamba Youssouf was convinced there would be an “improved media coverage around the prevention and cure of childhood illnesses, immunization and nutrition.”
According to him, “everyone knows that children are the most fragile segment of the population”.
Host country for the sub-regional conference, Togo, was singled out for mentioning for the remarkable progress it has made in Child Health promotion.
Welcoming participants to the Forum, the Country Representative to Togo, Hadja Aissata Ba Sidibé who deputized for the UNICEF Regional Director for West and Central Africa, said child health keeps improving and morbidity keeps reducing in Togo compared to other parts of the region.
In spite of Togo’s success story, Hadja Aissata Ba Sidibé revealed that many children still suffer from lack of proper nutrition and immunization in Africa.
She said as of 2022, “6.3 million infants in the region were not immunized and more than a third of the children in the region suffered from poor growth due to malnutrition.”
This, according to her, was worsened by factors such as insecurity, climate change, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Madame Ba Sidibé is, however, optimistic that West and Central Africa has great potential.
She thus enjoined the journalists at the forum to see child health promotion and protection as very critical by using their platforms to create awareness, open up discussions, and support in resource mobilization to mitigate factors working against child health promotion.
Opening the REMAPSEN/UNICEF First Media Forum on Child Health, Immunization and Nutrition in Africa, Togolese Minister of Communications and Media, Florence Yawa Ahofa Kouigan who spoke on behalf of the Togolese Government underscored the critical role of the media in filling the lack of information and knowledge gap among their audiences and in their countries.
Madamme Kouigan quizzed the journalists: “how many of your readers are educated by you on the importance of vaccination as one of the most effective and least effective means costly to prevent disease? Do they know that it plays a crucial role in reducing infant mortality?
“Are they informed that the incomplete vaccination is as problematic as the absence of vaccination because health cannot be partially conceived?”
The Togolese Minister charged the journalists “to take full advantage of the forum to be catalysts for change in this coordinated movement where we will continue to act in a spirit of solidarity and cooperation, for the health of present generations and futures in Africa, and above all so that every child grows up in good health, well nourished, and protected by vaccination.”
The participating journalists left the forum armed with lots of information and poised to use their respective media platforms to educate and inform their audiences on the state of child health promotion in the region, what needs to be done and how critical those actions are to reducing childhood preventable diseases and morbidity in Africa.
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