Story by Gay Matambo
MEDIA practitioners have been urged to play a more proactive role in communicating HIV prevention messages and building public confidence among survivors of gender-based violence (GBV), which remains one of the leading causes of new HIV infections in Zimbabwe.
The call was made during a National AIDS Council (NAC) engagement in Masvingo, where journalists were introduced to the Start Awareness Support Action (SASA) approach being implemented in Zaka District. The initiative focuses on providing support to survivors of sexual GBV and raising awareness on available HIV prevention methods.
Masvingo Provincial NAC Acting Manager, Mr Munorwei Munyikwa, said the media has a vital role in shaping public understanding of HIV and GBV issues.
“We have engaged media personnel in Masvingo Province so that we deepen understanding in terms of the SASA approach. We have been experiencing cases of sexual gender-based violence and we are also encouraging all the survivors to give priority to seeking health services as we have different prevention methods, one of them being the Post Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP)and the other Pre-exposure Prophylaxis(PREP),” he said.
Journalists who attended the session pledged their support for NAC’s awareness and prevention programmes, emphasising the need for responsible and informed health reporting.
“We are grateful for the training to enhance journalistic reportage on issues to do with HIV and AIDS. The issues are central to the work of journalists because the HIV pandemic looms large in our social and economic configuration as a nation.
“In many cases we have had situations where journalists have failed to adequately help in the fight against the pandemic due to lack of knowledge or ignorance in reporting. In other cases, skewed reporting has failed to capture key issues which will be crucial in helping the nation to win the battle against HIV and AIDS,” Zimbabwe Union of Journalists president, George Maponga said.
Other participants highlighted the importance of health communication training in strengthening their role as partners in national development.
“Such engagements are important to us as journalists. They remind us of the role we have to play in society. We have a mandate to assist government in the fight against HIV and AIDS. We need to go beyond news gathering to make sure that the news articles we produce on HIV and AIDS assist communities,” one journalist said.
“We have been here learning about health communication especially focusing on issues to do with HIV and AIDS reporting as journalists. We learnt responsible journalism and also raising awareness of these issues affecting our society,” another added.
According to NAC, Zimbabwe has achieved key milestones in the reduction of HIV prevalence from 13.6 percent in 2016 to 11 percent in 2023.
