{mosimage}With support from the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (Emergency Plan/ PEPFAR), a workshop for newspaper and broadcast journalists was conducted in Botswana in conjunction with World AIDS Day, December 1, 2007. The goals of the workshop were to enhance the quality of HIV/AIDS reporting and to create opportunities for journalists to engage with HIV/AIDS stakeholders in Botswana.
{mosimage}Botswana President Festus Mogae gave the keynote address at the workshop. During his remarks, President Mogae spoke of the need for Botswana to consider all prevention options in order to stage a comprehensive response against new HIV infections.
During the workshop, presentations were given by government and non-government stakeholders, as well as people living with HIV/AIDS.
Journalists also took part in a live video conference on the power of global partnerships with Dr. Tom Kenyon, PEPFAR’s Principal Deputy Coordinator and Chief Medical Officer, and Dr. Luke Nkinsi, African Comprehensive HIV/AIDS Partnerships (ACHAP) Board Chairman. The video conference took place at the U.S. Embassy in Gaborone with Dr. Kenyon participating from Washington, D.C., and Dr. Nkinsi calling from Seattle, Washington.
One objective of the workshop was to produce an eight-page newspaper supplement with stories written by the journalists from themes gathered at the two-day workshop.
More than 100,000 copies of the supplement were printed and distributed for readers in all major Botswana newspapers on World AIDS Day and over the following week.
