By Mustapha Kamara Jnr
West Africa Democracy Radio (WADR), a sub-regional broadcaster based in Dakar, Senegal, has commenced training of radio journalists on how to develop professional production and sensitive reporting techniques on the Ebola Virus Disease.
The training which is ongoing at the Hill Valley Hotel, on Signal Hill in Freetown, is funded by OXFAM International, a global non-governmental organization.
Participants in the two-day workshop were drawn from across the country, with representatives coming notably from the Freetown-based Africa Young Voices Radio, Citizen Radio, and Radio New Song in Bo, the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation Radio in Makeni. Other participants come from the Eastern Radio in Kenema and representatives from communities in which partners stations operate.
The workshop is part of a project called Supporting and Monitoring the Effective Governance of the Ebola Epidemic Response at Regional Level.
Agnes Thomasi, Project Director of WADR, said during the official opening of training that the project was designed to support and monitor the effective governance of the Ebola Epidemic Response in the three Ebola affected countries - Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia - through a series of coordinated top-down and bottom-up communication activities through partner radio stations and targeted civil societies in the ECOWAS region. She said the objective of the workshop was to address and strengthen information and communication gaps and to improve on Ebola sensitization messages that were being developed by broadcasters.
“The emphasis is to provide quality and effective communication on EVD,” she said, adding that the essence of partnering with community radios was to ensure partner radio stations “don’t work outside the box.”
The project also entails establishment of radio listening groups across the country and facilitators would be trained to ensure this. This, said Mrs Thomasi, was to ensure that beneficiaries of the information monitor the impact of information that would be put out by partner radio stations.
“During the workshop we will look at messages that have been developed by partner radio stations and see how they can be improved,” she said.
“Reporting on Ebola Virus Disease is very important in the fight against the disease,” said Abdulai Bayraytay of the office of the Government spokesman, Ministry of Information and Communication.
Bayraytay commended WADR and OXFAM for the initiative, noting the media`s role in the fight to end the epidemic. He said the training was important in the fight, especially at a time when the country was trying to attain and maintain zero new cases.
Batilloi Warritay, WADR board Chairman, while giving a background of the project, said it had been initiated in an engagement that the WADR General Manager had with OXFAM last year on the impact of the epidemic in the three Mano River Union countries. During the dialogue, he said, the two organizations reflected on how to plan to support and monitor the effective governance of the response to the epidemic at the regional level.
Warritay said implementation of the project started in April and had gone through faces.
“In April thematic groups were formed to support the process, develop editorial lines for the programmes outlined and establish links with the international, regional and local organizations in the field,” he said.
Chairman Warritay said producers had started developing and airing programmes in English and French and adapted by partner radio stations to local languages. He said the programmes had helped to harmonize information which aimed at supporting prevention and response efforts of the three countries.
“We attempt to provide channels to hear the real voice of our people in West Africa,” he said. Commencement of the workshop in Sierra Leone is a significant step to achieving the objectives of the project, he added.
Partner radio stations participating in the training were presented with some electronic broadcasting equipment, including smart phones, to be used in their reporting assignments.
The West Africa Democracy Radio was established by the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) in 2005 to disseminate development information across the West Africa sub-region.
(C) Politico 26/08/15
