A three day training for Water Sanitation and Hygiene, (WASH) media journalists in Gboko Local Government Area of Benue state has ended with a call for member to develop stories that can attract positive action of stakeholders to WASH issues in the state.
The workshop was organised by Rural Sanitation and Hygiene Promotion in Nigerian, (RUSHPIN) in collaboration with the Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Media Network and supported by United Purpose, (UP), Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council, (WSSCC).
National Coordinator, WASH Network in Nigeria, Wale Elekolusi, and representative from the Federal ministry of Water Resources, Miss Juliet Iordye said the event was to ensure that journalists in Benue state were well equipped to report on sanitation issues without sensationalization.
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Mr. Elekolusi told the Next Edition in an interview that WASH Media network is a group of independent journalists writing on water, sanitation and hygiene in Nigeria.
“Basically, their duty is to highlight issues of water and create more advocacy for access for young people; girls and women particularly, to have access to water and hygiene for better life.
“We try to develop and improve the technical capacity of Journalists to report water and sanitation in Nigeria”, he said.
Elekolusi said after the training, journalists are expected to be better positioned to develop stories that can bring WASH issues to the front burner, attract better response from critical stakeholders; government, NGOs and donors, for a good change in Benue Communities.
Earlier at the event, one of the facilitators, Mr. Isine Ibanga who took journalists on the rudiments of “WASH inclined story telling”, charged participants to focus their reports on human angle stories, such that it will create emotions and prompt response from stakeholders for intervention.
Mr. Ibanga stressed the need for journalists to tell the stories in a way that it conveys the reader to the scene of the event in other to trigger sympathy and apathy in the reader’s mind.
Communications and Learning Officer of United Purpose, Boluwatito Awe said the activities of the organization in the state has certified Logo, Gwer and Agatu Local Government Areas as Open Defecation Free, (ODF), with the on going scale up of the programme with the counterpart funds in Ado, Gboko and Gwer West.
Other facilitators, Mr. Olajide Adelana, Nelson Owoicho and Uadamen Ilevbaoje took turns to train journalists on several topics including “WASH Story: From Pitch To Print”, “Photography for development, human interest stories and mobile photography”, and “Budget Monitoring and Tracking”, respectively.
Our correspodent reports that the training attracted journalists from the prints, electronics and social media.
