DevComs, TCI trains Kano journalists on media advocacy for Child Birth Spacing

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The Development Communications Network (DevComs) in collaboration with The Challenge Initiative (TCI), this week, hosted a group of media practitioners and journalists to a 3-day workshop on media advocacy for family planning in Kano state.

 

 

The workshop was aimed at highlighting the media’s role in enhancing advocacy for CBS in policy and action, strengthening the ability of the media to effectively disseminate CBS messages as well as build the capacity of journalists and reporters to serve as family planning and CBS advocates in the state.

While delivering his presentation, Iliya Kure, executive director of Africa Media Development Foundation, said Nigeria was the country with the second highest mortality rate in the world after India, adding that unless a drastic action was taken, Nigeria could become the country with the highest mortality rate, by 2050.

According to a 2013 report by the Nigerian Urban Reproductive Health Initiative (NURHI), every 575 out of 1000 women die as a result of maternal mortality in Nigeria. Kure, therefore, urged the media to use compelling stories to change the attitude of people towards family Planning/ CBS issues in the state.

Musa Sufi, the state coordinator of TCI in Kano, identified delay at home, in reaching healthcare facilities as well as delay in attending to pregnant women while already at the healthcare facilities, as the major causes for the high mortality rates in Nigeria. He therefore called upon the family planning advocates to ensure they reach the right decision makers with the right message on Family Planning/Child Birth Spacing (CBS) at the right time.