KENYA: AMECEA News Correspondents trained on Online Reporting in Telling African Stories in the web

AMECEA Online News Correspondents were among the participants of the training on Online Journalism which was organized by Catholic News Agency for Africa (CANAA) and held at Don Bosco Centre, Nairobi –Kenya from 10th -13th May, 2016.

Among the beneficiaries of the training and the conferences they represented included Pamela Adinda (AMECEA), Fr. Godino Phokoso and Prince Anderson (Episcopal Conference of Malawi), Paschal Mwananche (Tanzania Episcopal Conference), Jacinta Odongo (Uganda Episcopal Conference), Rose Achiego (Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops); Mwenya Mukuka (Zambia Episcopal Conference) and Bertina Kanaka from the Archdiocese of Mombasa, Kenya.

In a statement read by AMECEA Communications Coordinator Very Rev. Fr. Chrisantus Ndaga during the opening of the training on behalf of the chairman of Catholic News Agency for Africa (CANAA) Board Chairman, Most Rev. Charles Palmer-Buckle Archbishop of Accra, Ghana, on 10th, May, 2016 stated that Africa is often times portrayed as a continent of gloom and doom and societal failures of ethnocentrisms, violent conflicts, corruption, epidemics like HIV/AIDs and Ebola.

He said that there is a lot of good and positive initiatives by the Church and other religious institutions which go unreported. “There are many interventions and positive activities of the Church in Africa that go unreported. Over the years, there has been the desire to share news and other information among the local Churches of Africa. There has also been a longing to have the voice of Africa’s Church heard within and beyond its borders,” read the statement.

Fr. Ndaga expressed hope that African Catholic Journalists should take this as challenge and thus takes up an active role in engaging themselves to boldly speak about them.

Speaking at the same time, CANAA Director Fr. Don Bosco Onyalla echoed the Bishop’s sentiments saying that Africa does not enjoy a positive narrative globally. He said that the agency exists to enhance a realistic image and appreciation of the church in Africa by engaging Africans in telling their stories.

The four-day training also had participants from Nigeria, Ghana, South Sudan, Zimbabwe, and Seychelles. Among the topics covered during the training included News formats and building the story, Content production foe web-based media, web-based news management, Telling the African story on the Web, addressing an international Audience, Interviewing skills, Use of video/audio, Writing leads, quotations and transitions, feature writing, Freelancing, Pitching among others.

During the workshop the participants were challenged to be more aggressive and at the fore-front in telling African stories.

By AMECEA Online Reporters, Nairobi -Kenya

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