By Ndidi Chukwu
Media Trust Limited the Publishers of Daily Trust Newspaper has assured Partnership for Advocacy in Child and Family Health (PACFaH) of its commitment to increase awareness and advocacy for child and family health in Nigeria. Daily Trust Managing Editor, Mr Ismaila Lere while receiving PACFaH coalition on a courtesy visit to the media outfit said Daily trust newspaper will play its own role as a partner for development to ensure that the issues of nutrition, family planning, routine immunisation and other health issues are properly captured in the newspaper’s daily report.
“this is because we know that health is for all, it is what affects the common man and we will lead advocacy to those in government, bearing in mind that the burning health care challenges in Nigeria require proper legislation and the media has a role to play” said Lere
The Daily Trust Newspaper according to Lere has increased readers awareness through its reports of sensitive health issue bordering on polio, family health, Guinea worm and other health issues since 2001 with its weekly health pages and has also housed committed columnists advocating for health in the last fourteen years.
Lere however commended the PACFaH team for the courtesy visit which he said will strengthen its commitment to health, and will ensure that health issues champion the cover pager of the paper as occasions demand.
He said “Nigeria is about eradicating polio today we at Daily Trust can say we contributed in creating awareness for Nigeria to record this milestone, we have worked with a lot of partners like the Federation of Muslim Women Association of Nigeria, to create awareness in Northern Nigeria at the time that vaccines were rejected, we are happy we are part of this process and will do more”
He said Media Trust will accept Opinion for publication from any of the PACFaH team who wishes to bring any health issue to the public domain, as he also announced that the paper has already added addition page for awareness on nutrition.
PACFaH is an innovative coalition of eight (8) indigenous Civil Society organisations working together to improve the understanding of the Nigerian Government on challenges surrounding child and family health issues there by enabling her ability to respond to advocacy demands of these CSOs in the areas of Family Planning, Routine Immunisation, Nutrition, and Pneumonia/Diarrhea.
PACFaH coordinator, Dr Muhammad Saleh said the role of media in moving the PACFaH project forward cannot be overemphasised, as he urged for increased media hype for improvement of child and family health in Nigeria.
