By Sunny A. David, Awka
Media practitioners have been charged to lead in the campaign to promote awareness on Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHRs) and as well fight against Gender-Based Violence (GBV) in Anambra State.
This was the high point of speeches delivered at one-day workshop organized in Awka by the Coalition of Eastern Non-governmental organizations (CENGOS) and other partners.
The event sought to equip reporters and media managers with requisite skills to deal with challenges of reporting gender-based violence in such a way that couple will know their rights in terms of reproduction and child spacing.
In a welcome speech, the State coordinator of CENGOS Professor Mercy Anigbogu who listed various laws that have been enacted by the Anambra State House of Assembly to protect the rights of women and children in the state, commended Governor Obiano for being the first Governor in the country to approve the laws.
In a paper titled “Understanding Sexual and Reproductive Health & rights and Gender-Based violence “, the lead facilitator Barrister (Mrs.) Iruka Nwokedi advised stakeholders particularly journalists to disseminate information on issues on their different platforms with a view to creating awareness through news, features and broadcast programmes.
She asked government, society and the church to take a second look on the constraints of Reproductive Health Rights and work towards reducing them while Non-governmental organizations and Community based organizations should intensify efforts in creating awareness on the issue to help checkmate child and maternal mortality.
In another paper presentation titled “Reporting gender-based violence (GBV)”, a veteran broadcaster and Executive Director of Women for Information Network (WINET), Mrs. Miriam Menkiti stressed the need to enhance the quality of reporting of GBV by instilling ethical principles that would make gender based violence visible in media houses in Anambra State.
