9 Nigerians, 5 others make it to first-ever Africa Disease Reporting Fellowship

Nine Nigerian journalist have topped the list of 14 African professionals selected for the inaugural edition of the first-ever Africa Disease Reporting Fellowship (ADReF) for Journalists reporting health in Africa.

The Fellows who were selected from a list of over one hundred applications from journalists with highly impressive résumé across 22 African countries are coming with diverse experience in field reporting, editing and multi-media engagements.

They will be part of a six (6)-week intensive learning programme aimed at honing their skill sets in disease reporting from the African perspective.

The Nigerian journalists including, Nnenna Ibeh, Ojoma Akor, Adebowale Adedigba, Folashade Akpan, Agbonkhese Oboh among other will be joined in the fellowship by colleagues from Kenya, Ghana, Burundi, Rwanda and Liberia.

The Fellowship programme, which holds between March and April of each year involves five (5) weeks of active virtual mentorship engagements with highly experienced faculties, and learnings from seasoned experts in science and health journalism, health promotion and administration, and other professionals in related fields. This culminates to a final one-week of face-to-face engagements with experts, partners and field trips in Abuja, Nigeria Nigeria’s capital.

The fellows will also have the opportunity to explore the allure of Abuja, Nigeria’s Capital City.

ADRAP’s Founder, Dr. Joseph Enegela says ADReF is a game-changer for health journalism and disease intervention in Africa.

“We at ADRAP and everyone involved in the planning of this groundbreaking fellowship are as upbeat as the incoming Fellows,” says Dr Enegela.

“The fellowship offers an opportunity for experts and journalists to meet, exchange knowledge and put issues surrounding disease outbreaks, management and interventions in context from the African point of view. Hopefully, this would pave the way for countries to develop better health interventions by making key information on existing and emerging diseases in Africa available, that way countries and the confluence of countries in the continent can reduce the rate of intervention failures.”

During the fellowship, the Fellows would be working on special reports on specific topics relevant to the focus for each fellowship year. These would be curated during the period before an enlarged audience.

Topics to be covered during the fellowship period include Foundations of Health Journalism, Health Literacy, Research and Disease Reporting, Contextual Reporting of epidemics and Pandemics in Africa, Reporting Emerging Infectious and Non-Communicable Diseases (Focus on Ebola and Post-Partum Haemorrhage), and the role of Data in Disease Reporting.

The fellows would also be exposed to advances in Multimedia Storytelling and the ethical use of Artificial Intelligence in journalism, as well as learning from the experiences of other participants.