Contributing Partner:   Internews
Contact:   Liz Gold
Email:   lgold@internews.org
 
Summary:   Internews Network’s Local Voices Project in Kenya was selected as an integral part of a Care and Support Panel at the 14th International Conference on HIV/AIDS and STI in Africa (ICASA). The conference took place December 4-9 in Abuja, Nigeria.
 
Description:   Local Voices provides support and training to Kenyan radio journalists to improve HIV/AIDS reporting. Radio content analysis conducted in Kenya has shown that the frequency and quality of radio coverage of AIDS issues have significantly improved since the project began three years ago.

Senior Resident Advisor, Mia Malan, made an oral presentation – co-authored by Senior Health and HIV Advisor, Liz Gold, as part of the Care, Support and Treatment panel on December 8 focusing on the Local Voices unique approach in working with local media and results to date in Kenya. Malan also participated in a UNAIDS media roundtable highlighting the results of the project. (See the presentation in text or PDF format).

Internews Health Journalism Project Director, Ron MacInnis, moderated a pre- conference UNAIDS media briefing in Abuja on December 3. Omululo Falobi from Nigerian partner organization Journalists Against AIDS (JAAIDS) and former Philadelphia Inquirer correspondent and award winning AIDS journalist, Huntly Collins, were also on the panel, among others.

Internews Nigeria’s media coordinator, Olaide Shokunbi, participated in a satellite session of the Enabling Environment Program (ENHANSE) initiative, stressing the role that the Nigerian news media can play in distributing health information effectively. Internews Nigeria is a partner in the ENHANSE project, a Nigeria-based policy project aimed at enabling sound health and education policies in Nigeria. Internews’ role in the partnership is to raise the standards of media’s role in addressing these policies.

Internews’ Local Voices Project is funded by USAID through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).
URL: http://www.internews.org/news/2005/20051214_kenya.html