YAMC trains 20 journalists in the Media Capacity Building Initiative for Reporting Disability

20 journalists have undergone training in reporting on disability through the Media Capacity Building Initiative for Reporting Disability (MCBIRD) organized by the Young Africa Media Centre (YAMC), with support from the US Embassy in Takoradi.

These journalists are the second cohort of MCBIRD after 30 were trained in the first cohort last year including the current GJA Journalist of the year, Portia Gabor.

The two-day residential program (Dec 1-2, 2022) combined roundtable discussions, seminars, and lectures from experts in disability, communication, journalism institutions, and media agencies based in the United States and Ghana.

Giving the welcome address, the General Manager of YAMC Stephen Salasie Asuo noted that this workshop was put together to train journalists to initiate ideas to report on issues affecting Persons Living with Disabilities (PWDs).

He explained that stigma is a major issue affecting PWDs which must be eliminated from the system gradually with the support of the media, hence MCBIRD.

Executive Director of StratCom Africa Madam Esther Cobbah, who was one of the key resource persons noted that people with disabilities have abilities in them that need to be unraveled, and that he said must be taken up by journalists.

To this end, Madam Esther Cobba said, there was a need for journalists to develop much interest in disability reporting to bring to light the hidden abilities of people with disabilities.

The National Coordinator of Ministry to Persons with Disability (MPWD), Pastor Alexander Nyame noted that the moment one begins to assume that a person with disability, we have lost it.

According to him, “it is not every disabled person you see on the street that needs help. You must first ask, if the person needs help, but do not assume”.

MCBIRD 2022 climaxed with an award and dinner night which saw Beatrice Sanadju of GTV winning the Best Journalist for Reporting on Disability and Ivan Korshie Heathcote-Fumado of Ultimate FM a subsidiary of EIB Network in Kumasi winning the Best Journalist Living With a Disability.

Each of them was presented with a cash price of Three Thousand Ghana Cedis and a plaque.

All the 20 MCBIRD fellows were also presented with citations for their meritorious contributions towards achieving equal platforms, rights, and services for People Living With Disabilities.