By Felicia Oyeniran
A Non-governmental organization, ‘Education as a Vaccine’ has trained female journalists across three states and the Federal Capital Territory on reporting climate change through the gender lens.
The training, which is aimed at portraying the reality of climate change and how it affects women drew participants from Benue, Niger, Nasarawa, and Abuja.
Speaking during the two-day workshop in Abuja, Vivian Chime, a climate change reporter emphasized the need for journalists to imbibe gender-equitable reporting.
This, she said will help to create mindful reports and also ensure proper representation of each group and age group.
She also encouraged journalists to correct false narratives, project the voices of women, and the solutions they are offering to climate related issues.
Rumunse Obi, one of the facilitators of the training noted that false narratives have widened existing gaps, urging journalists to tell the right stories to bring about advancement in the understanding of gender-responsive climate issues.
Rumunse said that journalists must be assertive and have a scope when reporting climate-related stories to create impact.
She warned against generalizations, as the effect of climate change does not affect everybody equally.
On her part, the program Officer of Education as a Vaccine, Sandra Jonathan encouraged the journalists not to relent in reporting these stories and also take courses on gender reporting.
She further urged female journalists to push for gender desks in their various organizations to help bridge the gap.
