By Joseph Erunke, ABUJA
An expert panel discussion on “Achieving Universal Health Care: The Role of Science, Faith and the Media” will hold in Abuja during a media science café, on the sides of The 11th Biennal conference of the Africa Christian Health Associations Platform (ACHAP).
The discussion is supported by ACHAP, CORUS International and facilitated by Internews, a global health media NGO.
According to Ruth Gemi, Project Coordinator, Promoting COVID – 19 Vaccine Equity through Faith Based Networks in Africa, CoVFaB, the Café aims to help journalists grasp the full extent of the challenge of UHC in Nigeria and Africa and unearth potential story angles.
“The open discussions will contextualize UHC and essential health care against the backdrop of broken and fragile health systems, the growing resource crunch for UHC, inadequate pandemic preparedness & climate change, together with the concerning rise of global and local inequities” she said in the pre activity advisory to journalists.
Experts say UHC has been stagnating since 2015 and without it, catastrophic medical expenses are pushing people into poverty
The expert panel will be composed by Dr. Dennis Cherian, Associate Vice President and Senior Technical Director for Health and Nutrition at Corus International, Rev. Fr. Genesis Onah Agbudu, Veritas University, representing Our Lady of Fatima Hospital, Bwari, Abuja and Kemo Cham, Award-winning Science Journalist, Editor, ManoReporters.com, Freetown, Liberia. Dr. Jaya Shreedhar, Senior Health Journalism Advisor, Internews will join the discussion during a question and answer session.
