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With Bold Mike and Fork

Ethiopian Journalists Learn Creative Ways to Report News

Solomon Teferi/Internews Ethiopian journalists get a hands-on cooking lesson as part of an Internews workshop on reporting on HIV/AIDS and nutrition.

(November 21, 2007) Ethiopian journalists were recently encouraged to temporarily swap their microphones for vegetable peelers.

At an Internews Local Voices workshop on nutrition for people living with HIV (PLHIV), six radio journalists learned first hand what types of nutritious meals are required for good health.

First came a briefing by nutrition expert Ato Tefera Azage of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, who said that eating well is of vital importance to PLHIV. He explained how fresh fruit and vegetables can be turned into low-cost and highly nutritious meals like soups and salads.

“There is a lack of awareness about food,” Ato Tefera Azage told the journalists. “People think you can’t have a balanced diet without spending a lot of money. But you can get very healthy items from the markets very cheaply.”

With that in their minds, the journalists headed off to cooking class.

At the Careme Culinary and Catering School, Chef Amanuel Retta led a class on basic nutrition and preparing healthy food. He too stressed that good food need not be expensive.

The journalists then tied on their aprons, and with a selection of fresh and economical ingredients, they cooked up vegetable soup and tibs, a popular Ethiopian dish.

To make an unusual and informative radio report, the journalists recorded commentary about what they were cooking as they were doing it. They interviewed Ato Tefera Azage and Chef Amanuel as well as a person living with HIV, Fasika, who works with the local HIV-positive people’s network, Dawn of Hope.

Journalist Tadesse Adele from FM Addis 97.1 says that creating such interesting and dynamic features is unusual in Ethiopia but that he has embraced this new style wholeheartedly.

“I feel strongly that in the past HIV/AIDS radio programs in Ethiopia were not particularly creative,” Tadesse says. “Many were boring and were sloganeering. We have to make conveying information as entertaining as we can.”

“I have now made huge changes in the way I work. Instead of sitting behind a desk, Internews has emphasized getting out into the field. You are unlikely to find me at my desk these days!” he says.

Internews Network’s Local Voices project, which supports accurate and effective reporting on HIV/AIDS, is funded by the President’s Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) through USAID.