Over 70 final year Journalism and Mass Communication (JMC) students of the University of Buea (UB) who turned up for the interactive teaching session in Mutengene, Fako Division of the South West Region from the 4th to 5th of July, were schooled on health reporting.
During the occasion, various medical and health terminologies used in disseminating information were impacted on the participants. Ways of contracting HIV/AIDS and other Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD's) as well as prevention were equally made known. One of participants, Nonga Nanje Pelagie left the seminar fully-equipped with new reporting skills.
"I know now how to talk with AIDS patients I meet out there and the kind of terminologies to use as a reporter when relating about AIDS and other health issues. Our language should be structured in a careful way as we present our messages to the public since many people still stigmatise the affected," she told CT. The host, Community Initiative AIDS Care and Prevention (CIACP) under the canopy of the Cameroon Baptist Convention Health Service (CBCHS), partnering with a German-based organisation - Bread for the World, has a task to arm reporters with health reporting skills.
The project Manager of CIACP, Laurette-Barbara Kometa, intimated that the initiative gives future journalists the right way of reporting on health-related issues. This year's seminar which targeted journalism students who are moving in the profession, was the fifth of its kind. The seminar was crowned with a free HIV-screening for all the students.
