The Edo State Human Capital Development Programme (HCD) on Friday charged journalists to adequately report the three thematic areas of the HCD to enable beneficiaries understand the benefits that are inherent in the programme.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that HCD Programme is a project of the National Economic Council (NEC) with it Core Working Groups working on three thematic areas of health and nutrition, education and labour force participation.
The Regional Consultant, South South HCD, Mr Olusoji Adeniyi, gave the charge at a two-day Media engagement and HCD reporting for media agencies, held in Benin, the Edo capital.
Speaking on the topic, “Accelerating HCD base in Nigeria”, Adeniyi said the three thematic areas of HCD were poorly reported, adding that stakeholders and communities were not aware of the benefit of the programme.
He noted that the media needed to say more about what government was doing through the HCD to enable communities become aware of the benefit of education and other thematic areas of the programme.
“The training is to build the capacity of media agencies and also to introduce the components of HCD to journalists to avoid misconception.
“The essence of the workshop is to let you know that HCD is a life cycle of a child which begins from the womb, the health of the mother, breastfeeding, nurturing of the child and the educational status of that child.
“It involves the opportunity for the child to become employable through the skills learnt. During the period, they were exposed to adolescence to young adults who would contribute to the labour force of the country.
“So the media need to engage the communities to let them know that a child that is wondering around during school hours, is a child that is likely to drop out of school and needs to be corrected and taken back to school.
“We want people to understand that a child that is going to be fully developed to contribute to the economy of the nation starts from when the child is in the mother’s womb
“It covers when the child is born in a facility that has the right kind of birth attendants so that we do not loose the child and mother to infant and maternal mortality,” he said.
According to him, “we are in Edo where bronze casting has become obsolete and the media need to educate the people on the need to revive it because it has put Edo on the world map.
Adeniyi, however, disclosed that a total of 260 journalists have so far been trained in the south south region on HCD programme.
Also speaking, the Edo HCD Focal Person and Managing Director, Edo Skills Development Agency, (Edojobs), Mrs Violet Obiokoro, stated that Gov. Godwin Obaseki had invested in HCD and was working with its three thematic areas.
Obiokoro, however, lamented that all of the improvement recorded so far by the governor in the state in the thematic areas have been under reported.
“The governor has done a lot in these areas but they are under reported and as a result, people are not aware of what government is doing,” Obiokoro said.
According to her, “I want to appeal to you all to begin to look into these areas and help us report what government is doing.
“It is about time we begin to report these activities and collect data by ourselves instead of waiting for people to report and collect data for us.”
A plenary was held with HCD thematic Focal Persons from the ministry of Health, Education and Edojobs to discuss the impact of HCD thematic areas in the state. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)
Source: News Agency of Nigeria