Dr Braimah Baba Abubakari, Upper East Regional Director of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), has urged journalists to go beyond routine health reporting and sustain public attention on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) challenges.
He said sustained media coverage was needed to highlight the less visible WASH challenges affecting maternal and child health services in communities.
“WASH rarely arrives as a headline; it arrives slowly, as the child who falls sick again and again, the clinic that cannot keep its taps running, the mother who walks long distances for water while heavily pregnant,” he said.
Dr Abubakari was speaking at the fifth Upper East Regional Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) Awards ceremony in Bolgatanga, held on the theme: “Beyond the Headlines: The Media’s Role in Promoting Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) for Safe Motherhood and Quality Healthcare.”
He emphasised the importance of collaboration between the media and the health sector, saying health professionals provide data and technical knowledge, while journalists help communicate critical health messages to the public.
“When we work together, a message about hand washing can travel from a regional report to a kitchen in a village in Garu. When we work apart, important truths stay in files and filing cabinets,” he said.
Dr Abubakari urged journalists to tell the human stories behind health statistics and follow up on interventions to ensure that commitments translate into results.
He also encouraged the media to report solutions and successful community initiatives alongside challenges.
“When a community ends open defecation, when a facility achieves a consistent water supply, or when a district reduces diarrhoeal cases, that is news too,” he said.
Dr Abubakari further urged media houses to use local languages, including Gurune, Kusaal, Buli and Mampruli, to reach communities with messages on handwashing, safe water storage, hospital delivery and early antenatal care.
He said effective WASH education required the collective efforts of health professionals, traditional authorities, government officials, development partners, the media and other stakeholders.
Dr Abubakari congratulated journalists and award winners for their contribution to public education and policy, while encouraging them to consider WASH and maternal health as important areas for sustained reporting.
He said every safe delivery and every child who survived and thrived represented a story worth telling.
