Some 30 journalists have been trained on the Primary Health Coverage (PHC) as a way of sharpening their reporting skills on health.
Addressing the press on Monday at Bungoma hotel after a one day workshop, Rahma Issa, an advocacy coordinator Stage Media Arts (SMA) said that the organisation decided to conduct scribes training with an aim of enhancing on their reporting skills while highlighting health stories.
She added that Bungoma is among the four counties that will benefit from a Primary Health Care project noting that the training will equip journalists with health reporting skills.
Other counties that will benefit with the PHC include Machakos, Nyeri, Embu and Nakuru.
“We are very lucky that Bungoma is among the counties that have been picked to benefit from the PHC project, after this project Bungoma will improve its primary health care systems,” Issa said.
However, the advocacy coordinator revealed the project targets all stakeholders in the health departments to ensure residents benefit from the PHC project.
“We have incorporated all stakeholders to the village level to ensure residents are sensitised,” she said, adding that recently the organisation contacted a training of the Community Health Volunteers (CHV’s).
She added, “CHV’s play a critical role where primary health care is concerned, we want to involve every stakeholder to help us improve primary health care.”
Issa added that the media plays a major role in informing the community on health issues saying that it also helps to remind the government of the gaps and what needs to be done to improve the health.
“The media plays a very important role in informing the community especially when there is an outbreak,” she said.
She noted that the partners in the PHC projects in Bungoma county include Options MAMAYE, Stage Media arts, Bungoma County government Ministry of Health and sanitation, Marie stopes and Civil Society Organisations.
Issa lauded Evidence for Action (E4A) organisation for supporting the health project and providing facilitators to train journalists on PHC reporting.
Stephen Yambi, a public health practitioner and an E4A representative in Bungoma called on the journalists to be factual while highlighting health stories.
