The Youth Harvest Foundation Ghana, a non-government organisation based in Bolgatanga, has organised a three-day capacity building training for 10 selected journalists drawn from the Upper East and North East Regions.
The training programme, which had in attendance journalists from radio, television, online and print media, helped to deepen their knowledge on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) issues so that they can be able to report on them effectively.
The journalists were taken through topics such as the basics of SRHR and Ghana’s Laws on abortion,
They also received training on advocacy and its importance in their work in highlighting SRHR issues such as sexual and gender-based violence, child marriages, teenage pregnancies, among others.
Addressing the media at the end of the training in Bolgatanga, project officer with the Youth Harvest Foundation, Albert Apotele Nyaaba, said the training programme was to widen the understanding of journalists to be able to better report and inform the public on matters of SRHR through their various platforms.
Nyaaba, who noted the key role journalists play in the dissemination of information, said journalists would be able to disseminate accuracy and well-informed reportage on issues of SRHR when they are well-informed and educated.
“The Upper East Region happens to be one of the regions that young people get pregnant a lot. In view of this, we [YHFG] think that it is very proper to get young people educated on issues of sexual and reproductive health. When we do that, we get them empowered to be able to make informed decisions regarding their sexuality.”
He said: “This is one of the issues we are championing. And we think the best way to go is to be able to work with the journalists who on their various platforms and airwaves will be able to educate our young people, even parents and stakeholders, to understand the need to allow young people to get adequate information regarding their sexuality.”
So, the training of Journalists is to beef their capacity to be able to report issues about SRHR properly and in perspective so that their audience will get to appreciate the issues [SRHR].” Nyaaba stated.
Advocacy
The journalists were also trained on the importance of advocacy and its effectiveness to add to their work and to cause positive change in the public in the perspective of SRHR.
Nyaaba who took the Journalists through the session, urged them to employ advocacy in their reports to call the attention of decision makers to policy issues and influence the law making and implementation processes.
He further urged the Journalists to use advocacy to promote the oppressed, marginalised and the voiceless on issues of SRHR and to not leave it there but follow up to ensure positive change is achieved.
He climaxed the session with advice to the Journalists to be diplomatic, patient, persistent, use evidence-based information and ensure their safety when engaging in advocacy or following reports that put their lives at risks.
“In advocacy, we use diplomacy to achieve results. We don’t use any other means like we do in activism. We must also be patient and persistent with our demands or concerns because in advocacy things take time for change to be achieved.”
Abortion law.
On safe abortion in Ghana, Nyaaba said the law states that abortion can only be performed legally under four conditions which are; when the pregnancy poses a risk to health, came about as a result of rape, incest and defilement or the risk that the foetus has or will have serious abnormality or disease.
Nyaaba continued that the law mandates only registered medical practitioners to perform abortion at recognized or registered health facilities in the country.
He said the government hospitals, private hospitals and clinics registered under the Private Hospital and Maternity Homes Act, 1958 (No. 9), and the Marie Stopes clinics and the Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana (PPAG), which have been approved by the Minister of Health could perform legal abortions in the country.
Senyalah Castro
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