DOH-V empowers student journalists on health promotion
Capacitating student journalists on health promotion, the region’s Department of Health office (DOH-V) conducted a ‘write-shop’ for the quarterly newsletter: Student Journalists for Health held at the Daguinsin Hall, DOH-ROV, Legazpi City on August 25-26.
With the theme, “I Write for Health” and the hashtag, #healthprom, the 2-day writing workshop aimed to raise awareness on health issues and also to further health promotion among the community through health journalism.
DOH-V invited 35 student journalists from college publications in various universities in Albay and guest speakers that taught and tackled on health related issues currently being faced by the region.
It included lectures on news and feature writing for health topics and basic photography and photojournalism.
The workshop also had a simulated press conference wherein the participants were to ask questions regarding health issues and also a writing contest which was conducted on the last day.
Nurse Tricia Barozo presented and talked about the status of adolescent health in the Philippines wherein she said that the increasing number of teenage pregnancy in the country is becoming alarming as the years goes by.
“In Albay, the total deliveries coming teenage pregnancy in 2016 from January to June already reached 7 percent. That’s already a big percentage,” she said. “Now to get the regional profile, you have to get the regional total deliveries and get the percentage of pregnancies among adolescents. The Bicol region reached 9 percent,” she added.
Meanwhile, Michael Jaucian, correspondent of Philippine Daily Inquirer equipped the participants with his knowledge and experience on news writing for health.
Jaucian carried out a news writing activity on dengue in which he simulated an interview with Kenn Nuyda, a Health Education Promotion Officer of DOH about the status of dengue cases in Bicol for the participants to write about.
“There should be a lot to consider in writing a story to be an effective writer for health. For starters, you must have the drive,” he said.
HEALTHY WISHES. Participants write on a Freedom Wall their wishes and expectation for the event. Photo by Shaina Prulla/Intern
The Manila Times and Rappler correspondent Rhaydz Barcia was also there to talk about writing health feature stories.
“Always be particular on what you are writing, get the data, and the statistics are always important. Always go to the grassroots before going up. From a small context of detail to the bigger picture,” Barcia said.
Meanwhile, Owen Del Castillo, photograher of Mayon Photography Inc. shared tips and techniques on basic photography and photojournalism among the participants.
Castillo said that in photojournalism, “It is telling stories through your photos, period. Simplicity is number one. It should look clean and the message should be clear.”
DOH-V awarded the official college publications Aquinian Herald of Aquinas University, and Budyong of Bicol University College of Arts and Letters for being best in news writing and feature writing, respectively.
Sharing her thoughts, Rona Maricar Miña, editor-in-chief of Aquinian Herald said that the write-shop made her realize the importance of including health stories in campus papers.
“It was helpful to me in a way that it introduced me to new forms of writing articles. Health journalism is a good way to disseminate the information needed by the community regarding health,” Miña said.
