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H
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An Extraordinary Component of the
Media Development Project
Together.
For Life.
While the general aim and focus of the
Media Development Project is described elsewhere at this web-site,
the urgency of the combat against the further spread of HIV/AIDS, high
on the national agenda, presently requires the
active participation
of ALL : Together - for life!
According
to recent statistics AIDS is becoming the
primary cause of death in
Africa. And Mozambique is - at the speed of improvement of effective
diagnosis it seems - moving closer to the sad fraternity of neighbouring
countries worst affected. It is estimated that between
600 and 700
persons are infected daily and for example already last year the
Governor of Manica Province at a point called a press conference to
announce that the central provincial hospital of Chimoio - one of the
national AIDS hot-spots - was filled with primarily AIDS patients, which
meant that the hospital was unable to admit ill people with curable
diseases.
The gravity of the
situation in Mozambique is slowly being
realised by decision makers,
health personnel and development workers alike. Without
drastic action
the pandemic - with all the derived causes of death like TB - will in
very few years have decimated the number of citizens in the productive
age significantly - with
uncontrollable
consequences. A
National
Strategic Plan
has been developed and adopted by Parliament in 1999, and
a National AIDS Council (NAC, or 'Conselho
Nacional de Combate ao SIDA: CNCS
)
is
the coordinating body responsible for the implementation and continuous
updating of that plan. Similarly each sector in the Mozambican society
is developing methodologies and activities to carry their part of the
responsibility for responding to the situation, the UN system has
developed its own strategy for putting HIV/AIDS prevention on to the
agenda of all its programmes, projects and activities.
Whereas it is debated whether media and
mass communicated messages are able to significantly impact on the
behavior of consumers, a heightened level of informed debate cannot
avoid to reinforce other action.
Media and media personnel (journalists
and editors) is therefore one of the important target groups for
information and awareness raising on the situation.
The Media Development Project is therefore taking up its part
of the challenge by implementing alongside its core media development
activities, a separate, extraordinary HIV/AIDS component, including the
following activities:
-
12 day
training courses
for journalists and editors on HIV/AIDS reporting,
-
Development, Distribution and use of a
one-day HIV/AIDS training package
to be included into any kind of training courses for journalists and
editors,
-
Bi-monthly
HIV/AIDS 4-page briefing notes
sent to all Mozambican media, including community media, to
continually inform and inspire an effective and adequate journalistic
coverage,
-
Editors conferences,
ensuring that these important gate-keepers are informed and supportive
in the journalists' efforts to cover actively and effectively the
pandemic,
-
Special
training-cum-production
processes with selected communities to help develop participatory and
community-based programmes on HIV/AIDS,
-
Annual national seminars
for journalists working in the HIV/AIDS area.
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Whereas it is debated whether media and
mass communicated messages are able to significantly impact on the
behavior of consumers, a heightened level of informed debate cannot
avoid to reinforce other action.
Media and media personnel (journalists
and editors) is therefore one of the important target groups for
information and awareness raising on the situation.
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