Information Saves Lives: Health Response Fund

Thank you for your generous support to our Information Saves Lives: COVID-19 Response Fund. Around the world, pervasive health misinformation exacerbates other public health challenges, from inequitable vaccination access, inadequate health systems, to a lack of political will on the part of governments.

Over the halfway mark for 2021, Internews is dedicated as ever to support journalists and media partners on the frontlines in providing essential information on the status of the pandemic and health services to communities. We have recently established the Health Journalism Network (HJN), a dynamic global community of media practitioners reporting on health, including emerging pathogen threats. As of July 2021, the network has over 850 registered members from 65 countries. Our aim is to connect people and build a dynamic community of media practitioners reporting on health, including COVID-19.

We have also recently launched Let’s Talk Vaccines, an interactive e-learning course for journalists focused on the COVID-19 vaccines. In addition to covering vaccine science, access to the vaccine, and the logistics of vaccine rollout, the course also addresses how journalists can build vaccine confidence through their reporting. As a follow up to that course, we have also launched Vaccine Stories Production Grants, where we will support selected journalists who have completed the free online course to pitch, produce, and disseminate a vaccine story in their local and regional media.

It’s been an incredible journey accompanying courageous journalists and media groups to counter the onslaught of health misinformation. In the words of Professor Salim Abdool Karim, Columbia Mailman School of Public Health epidemiologist and director of the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA) at our recent course launch, “It is a calling to be fact-providers, to explain the uncertainty amidst the facts and to help society come to terms with its harsh reality of those who spin and camouflage the truth.”

Your generous support is enabling us in this important work. Thank you again for your ongoing partnership!

Links:

• Learn more about the Internews Health Journalism Network (HJN)

Thank you for your generous support of Internews’ COVID-19 Rapid Response Fund. With the ongoing pandemic and a rise in vaccine hesitancy, support from donors like you is helping our local partners around the world build resiliency in the strained socioeconomic climate caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Our partners are continuing to provide fact checked information to vulnerable communities so that they can be better informed about protecting themselves and their families and how to access available services. For example, Internews is supporting its partners to dispel misinformation about vaccines by providing factual and reliable information about vaccine science and rollout services.

Over the past year, Internews' Information Saves Lives Rapid Response Fund has continued to provide financial and technical support to over 320 media outlets in around 68 countries in 135 languages. By giving media partners the tools to report on COVID-19, we are ensuring that journalists have the knowledge to report on health emergencies like the coronavirus pandemic as well as the capacity to publish fact-based information to targeted populations that are most at-risk.  

In South Africa, Food for Mzansi, a digital news organization with a keen focus on rural and agricultural communities, worked with the guidance of Internews to create a comic strip to provide relevant COVID-19 information in a creative way to youth and adults with limited literacy. The comic strip included characters like Captain Stay Safe and Thandi, comic heroes who look out for them during the pandemic. Produced in 11 languages, the comic strip helps both children as well as adults better understand the severity of the virus and the guidelines to protect themselves. By providing information to underserved agricultural communities in South Africa, our partner media organization is helping farmers and their families safely navigate these uncertain times during the pandemic.

In Colombia, SentARTE is using their multimedia skills to inform indigenous communities, specifically indigenous women and children, about the current status of the pandemic and how to survive the physical and psychological impacts of COVID-19. By producing infographics, animations, and podcasts, our partner organization amplifies issues related to indigenous rights and also works with Internews’ Health Journalism Network to attend to concerns around the pandemic and ensure that residents of isolated communities can access fact-checked information about how to stay safe and access health services.

In the United Kingdom, Tinig UK, an online news site for Filipino migrants, has been focusing on protecting vulnerable migrants who work in the healthcare field. Since the start of the pandemic, over 60 Filipino healthcare workers have been reported to have died from the coronavirus. Tinig UK founder, Liezel, aims to counter misinformation in Filipino migrant communities, elevate the voices of underserved migrants to the broader nation, and address any concerns related to the pandemic, such as vaccine hesitancy.

Thank you for your support of our mission to keep communities informed during this difficult time. Producing and disseminating accurate and verified information about the pandemic is key to keeping the most vulnerable healthy and safe. If you have any questions or would like to know more about our COVID response work, please do not hesitate to reach out. 

We look forward to sharing more information about our partners and projects that have been made possible with your donations.