Journalists trained on raising public awareness on breastfeeding

By Awan Achiek

The Ministry Health in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Thursday held workshop for journalists, aimed to promote public awareness on exclusive breastfeeding and infant nutrition, ahead of the commemoration of the 2024 World Breastfeeding Week.

The one-day training equipped 27 journalists with information to create awareness on breastfeeding in promoting child survival, health, and overall well-being.

Rita Juan, Senior Nutrition Inspector and Breastfeeding Focal Person at the Ministry of Health said the training will impact media professionals with skills and knowledge to report stories that raise awareness about the importance of breastfeeding.

 “It’s not only for us the Ministry of Health and the UN and implementing partners, but it’s for everybody to join in the support, and when we thought of this theme for this year, it looked so hard for us,” said Juan during the closing of the training in Juba.

This year theme is” Closing the Gap: Breastfeeding Support for all”.

Juan said the media has a vital role to play in disseminating accurate information about breastfeeding to close the gap.

“Therefore, we have to all close the gap. The gap remains only 40% and it will be easy for us to close this gap. Let us celebrate our mothers in South Sudan,” she said.

For her part, Jesca Wude Murye, Nutrition Specialist for UNICEF in South Sudan said the training seeks to strengthen the capacity of media practitioners towards child- focused reporting using an exclusive breastfeeding approach for enhanced infant nutrition.

“So let us make sure that change starts with us, and once it starts with us, then it spreads to the family, then from the family to the rest of the community around us,” said Wude.

Wude added that the training also helps journalists to channel positive stories that will help in raising exclusive breastfeeding practices among households.

“So if we don’t practice the right thing, then even the person next to us will not practice the right thing. So as journalists and as people who report, I encourage us to report,” she said.

Breastmilk is a nutritional powerhouse for infants, providing all the essential nutrients they need in the first six months of life to two years.

It acts as a powerful immunization against life-threatening diseases, preventing diarrhea and respiratory infection.

Moreover, breastfeeding can reduce infection-related mortality among infants.