Maisha Yetu: Media Campaign for Our Lives

During the first phase of the campaign, the AWMC conducted research on the quality and quantity of media coverage of public health issues. The qualitative component of the research examined the contents of selected newspapers in five African countries: Botswana, Cameroon, Kenya, Malawi, and Senegal. This helped determine what resources the media need to broaden and improve their coverage of health care.

The second phase of the Maisha Yetu project was launched in September 2004 with the goal of creating practical, sustainable measures that would help African media improve their coverage of HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria. During this phase, the IWMF formed partnerships with "Centers of Excellence" in three countries to work with them on developing models for health reporting. Botswana, Kenya, and Senegal were chosen as the countries for the second phase because of their regional diversity and because they have different media environments and diverse health profiles. Journalists with experience as health reporters in each of these countries were selected to become local trainers. The local trainers, in collaboration with a Harare-based project manager, designed individual plans based on each country's and each media house's needs to move Maisha Yetu into newsrooms.

According to IWMF, between March 2005 and March 2006, the Centers of Excellence held more than 20 skills-building workshops and trained some 1,000 journalists. The training was designed to link HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria to wider social and development issues as well as provide basic skills journalists need to cover health.

Women, Health, HIV/AIDS.

The long-term campaign aims to enhance the quality of healthcare coverage in the African media with responsible, accurate, and relevant media messages.

Women comprised as least half of participants in the workshops. Journalists from beats other than health and newsroom managers were also encouraged to attend workshops in an effort to spread health reporting to other news areas, such as economics, politics, and features.

Key accomplishments noted by IWMF of the Maisha Yetu Centers of Excellence (to date) include:

• Mmegi newspaper in Botswana established a health desk. Between October 2005 and January 2006, the newspaper published more than 100 stories on health and produced a special supplement on World AIDS Day 2005, which was inserted into the main newspaper.
• Botswana Radio 1 developed a 15-minute programme, Letlhabile ("The Sun Has Risen") on HIV/AIDS, as a direct result of Maisha Yetu. The project also played a key role in developing more in-depth content for Re Mmogo (We Are Together), an award-winning, half-hour weekly programme on HIV/AIDS on Botswana Television.
• In Kenya, by February 2005, at least 42 stories on HIV/AIDS appeared in the Nation and Standard newspapers as a direct result of Maisha Yetu. At least 19 radio or television stories appeared during the same time period.
• Since August 2005, Horizon, the weekly science supplement at The Nation newspaper in Kenya has devoted some 50 percent of its space to articles on HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria.
• One Maisha Yetu journalist took on corruption by Kenya's National AIDS Control Council. He wrote ten articles exposing misuse of government funds and set the pace for other journalists to expose corruption by government and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
• In Kenya, a database of 250 journalists working on health stories was created to help them share information and tips.
• In Senegal, between September 2004 and May 2005, Le Soleil published 106 stories on HIV/AIDS, nine stories on TB, and 43 stories on malaria.
• In Senegal, Sud FM broadcast approximately 40 stories on its weekly national health programme between September 2004 and June 2005 as a result of Maisha Yetu's influence. In addition, stories done on HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria by reporters in the provinces increased by 20-30 percent.