Traffic Crashes as Public Health Epidemic
Journalists from around the world arrive in New Zealand for the 11th Annual World Conference on Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion
Road traffic injury is the number one leading cause of death for people between the ages of 15-29, and about 5.8 million people die each year as a result of injuries.
Journalists from from Ghana, Kenya, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Brazil, Bangladesh, India and Egyptare attending the 11th Annual World Conference on Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion in Wellington, New Zealand on Internews-sponsored fellowships.They will spend the next week in intensive sessions learning how to cover the massive impact of road crashes as a public health issue.
Road traffic is often covered in the media as an event – not as an enormous drain on a country’s health resources or a leading killer of its citizens. By framing traffic safety as a health story, journalists have the opportunity to impact the way these stories are told, and potentially help shift policy and public reaction.
In partnership with the World Health Organization, Internews senior trainers will lead journalists through a three-day, pre-conference training focused on the importance of road safety as a global public health issues and effective ways of reporting on injury, trauma and other related to issues. They will also receive intensive mentoring during the conference, to bring the stories home to their readers.
Meet the Fellows
Banung Ou, Cambodia
Banung Ou is a freelance journalist for the Phnom Penh Post News Paper and a senior at Royal University’s Department of Media and Communication in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Ou’s past experience includes working as a script writer for a legal drama at the Women Media’s Center of Cambodia, a non-government TV and radio station, and working with BBC radio programming in the country. She is eager to continue developing her professional skills in the media and communication field and has already participated in a number of media trainings in Vietnam, Thailand, Sweden and Germany.
Carole Mucheru, Kenya
Carole Mucheru is a radio journalist with more than 10 years of experience in program production, news reporting and editing. Throughout her career she has covered a wide range of topics from health to human rights and science. Carole has participated in Internews trainings in the past, most recently she attended a science journalism training hosted by Internews Kenya.
Samuel Hinneh, Ghana
Samuel Hinneh, a graduate of the African College of Communications in Ghana with a degree in communications, currently works at Allied News Limited as a full time journalist and publisher of the Daily Dispatch Newspaper. The Daily Dispatch is the leading political and research based newspaper in Ghana and there Samuel reports on science, development and technology issues. Recently, he was awarded the Africa Means Business Fellowship funded by the Thompson Media Foundation and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
André Monteiro, Brazil
André is a full time reporter at the Daily Life Desk in Sao Paulo, focusing on issues such as police and law enforcement, traffic, public health and education. He typically develops statistic heavy stories, analyzing large databases to extract compelling information for a story. In collaboration with colleagues, André has published prize-winning stories evaluating the public school system in Sao Paulo and the dynamics of violence in the city. Andre completed a journalism training program at Folha de Sao Paulo, a major local newspaper.
Nesma Nowar, Egypt
Nesma Nowar is a journalist at the Al-Ahram Weekly, Egypt’s number one English-language newspaper, and also works as a part time business writer for their English language news website. During her career, she has written many features and stories on economic issues. Nesma has aspired to be a journalist since childhood and believes that the media plays a critical role in achieving stronger democracies.
Dipak Dash, India
Dipak Dash began his career in journalism in the late 1990s and joined the Times of India, the world’s largest selling English newspaper, in September 2006. His primary focus is on covering infrastructure, including roads, highways and ports. Road safety is a particular interest of Dipak’s as it is an issue that affects a significant portion of the Indian population. India has one of the highest incidences of road fatalities in the world. Dipak strongly believes that wide publicity of road crashes and their causes can have a great impact on road users.
Saiful Islam, Bangladesh
Saiful Islam is an award-winning health journalist from Bangladesh and has been working for the BSS News Agency for over a decade. With a Masters in public health and philosophy, he has dedicated his career to covering science, environment and health issues. He also founded the Health and Environment Journalist forum in Bangladesh (HEJFB). Saiful has made it a personal priority to focus on important issues facing his community in the field of health and environment.
Wei Ouyang, China
Wei Ouyang has been working at the Shenzen Special Zone Daily since the mid-1990s. She is currently working in the Sports, News and International news departments, and is the chief editor of the international news page. Wei has traveled abroad to cover stories and has made it a priority to cover international public health issues for those in her local community. She often translates interesting or important articles into Chinese so that people from the local community, particularly in rural areas, have access to international news.
Minh Thi Luong, Vietnam
Minh Thi Luong is a social affairs reporter and sub-editor for the Viet Nam News, an English language daily publication. Her favorite subjects to report on are public health, employment and government policies. She believes that the media should be proactive in covering important health and safety issues and plays a vital role in educating the public on these subjects.
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