Information Saves Lives: Health Response Fund

Over the past few years, the world has endured significant loss and suffering. Despite these challenges, we see hope in the global community’s support of health equity and rights for the most vulnerable. In the past few months, your generous support has helped us to amplify important news reports and media discussions on public health and equity:

Women, Media, and Health:

On March 8^th, we celebrated International Women’s Day. On this important occasion, Chidera Aneka, a member of Internews’ Health Journalism Network (HJN) based in Nigeria, spoke with Paula Orlando, Internews’ Senior Program Officer – Knowledge & Gender, on how to achieve gender balance in the media. You can listen in on the conversation and learn more about this important topic, including practical tools for journalists and business professionals to advance gender balance in the media, in this short podcast session.

Your support has helped HJN to amplify important stories related to women and girls’ health-related rights, from El Salvador to Zambia:

• “Manuela: Inspiration, Resistance and Hope”: An article originally published on January 4, 2022 on the FOCOS platform by Saúl Hernández Alfaro, HJN Member, Founder and Codirector of FOCOS TV.
• “For Sexual Assault Victims in Ghana, Justice is Expensive – and Elusive”: A feature story originally published on February 15, 2022, on The World by Ridwan Karim Dini-Osman, HJN Member, Pulitzer Center Grantee, journalist and news anchor based in Ghana.
• “Zambia: Women and Girls with Disabilities have a Right to Marriage Counseling”: An article by Mercy Banda, HJN Member, SRHR story grant winner.

Addressing Vaccine Hesitancy through Journalism:

The world still grapples with COVID-19 vaccine mistrust and concerns about their efficacy. This begs the question: How can journalists give unvaccinated people the information they need to protect themselves? Thanks in part to your support, we’ve engaged with public health experts and journalists on vaccine storytelling specifically aimed at those who are unvaccinated. Examples include:

• Internews’ Online Media Dialog - a series of global and regional dialogs supported by the Sabin Vaccine Institute - recently hosted a media event for journalists in Eastern Europe. Our pandemic media mentor Artyom Liss moderated a discussion with journalists and partners in the region who are grappling with vaccine storytelling for audiences who have tuned out. Event participants left with practical, actionable advice to engage with these audiences, along with an opportunity to apply for a COVID-19 vaccine reporting fellowship.
• In another podcast session, HJN Member Engagement Coordinator, Kathryn Cleary, also chatted with John Kinsman, a social and behavior change expert from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, to address the big questions about how journalists can better engage with unvaccinated persons in their reporting. Listen to their conversation here.

Through events like these, we aim to bring journalist perspectives from the field of risk communication and behavioral science – and to help journalists find new ways to write about the COVID-19 pandemic and the protection offered by vaccines. Thank you for your continued partnership on this important initiative.

Links:

• Learn more about Internews' COVID-19 Response
• Internews Health Journalism Network