The Faith and Cultural Champions (FCC) Project has challenged media professionals to move beyond reporting health programmes and deliberately amplify credible messages from trusted faith and cultural leaders to influence community behaviour.

The call was made at a strategic media partnership roundtable held in Kaduna to explore how media engagement could strengthen health communication at the community level.

The engagement theme was “Amplifying Faith, Culture and Community Voices for Better Health Outcomes.”

Stakeholders observed that while faith and cultural leaders wield considerable influence and trust within their communities, their ability to drive positive health outcomes could be significantly strengthened when their messages were strategically developed, amplified and sustained through the media.

Chairman of the Advisory Faith and Cultural Champions (AFCC), Bello Abdulkadir, said the champions serve as the faith and cultural anchors across the project’s interventions and possess the moral authority and community trust required to influence social norms.

He said the AFCCs were positioned to shape attitudes and behaviours, respond to changing societal dynamics and support informed and voluntary decisions among members of their communities.

Mr Abdulkadir said the media could help extend the reach of such influence by ensuring that value-based messages on health were consistently communicated to wider audiences.

The senior programme officer, FCC Project, Oluwaseun Bamidele, said the project was seeking measurable changes in knowledge, attitudes and behaviours among faith leaders and their audiences on maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH), child spacing and family planning (CS/FP).

He said the project also aimed to increase both the quantity and quality of health messages produced by faith leaders on priority health issues.

Mr Bamidele identified improved community attitudes and behaviours, increased antenatal care attendance, facility deliveries and contraceptive use among adolescent girls and young women, as well as a reduction in maternal deaths, as some of the desired outcomes.

The deputy project director of the FCC Project, Kabiru Abdullahi, said the media and other stakeholders have a collective responsibility to ensure that young people receive accurate information, positive values and skills needed to make responsible decisions concerning their health and wellbeing.

He called for meaningful participation, peer learning and open dialogue to create supportive environments where adolescents could access reliable information.

Mr Abdullahi said empowering young people with accurate information would help them become informed, responsible and productive members of society.

The roundtable featured panel discussions, interactive sessions and deliberations on the way forward.

It also culminated in commitments by participants to strengthen media engagement and improve the visibility and quality of faith and culture-based health messaging.

The engagement brought together media practitioners, faith and cultural champions and other stakeholders to examine how trusted community voices could be better connected with the media to achieve sustainable health behaviour change.
(NAN)