Phnom Penh: Recently, Helen Keller International – Cambodia and GIZ MUSEFO, in collaboration with the Council for the Rehabilitation of Agriculture and Rural Development, launched a training course on nutrition, breastfeeding, feeding of infants and children to journalists from about 30 media outlets and also organize the nutrition championships.
After more than three months of intense competition among the journalists, the project has named the winners and rewarded the outstanding journalists who produced the best articles on nutrition, breastfeeding, and feeding of infants and children.
The first prize was awarded to AMS Education News, The Khmer Times, and The Plus News with each receiving a Macbook Pro worth about $2,000.
The second prize went to the General Department of Radio National of Cambodia of the Ministry of Information, PNN News, and Khmernas Digital with each being awarded an iPad worth aprox $1,000.
The third prize went to the Youth 21, FYN Media, and the Phnom Penh Post. Each received a recorder valued about $500 to assist reports with future interviews.
Mr. Mao Samnang, a journalist from AMS, represented all the winners in his speech. He spoke about the process of participation in the competition and shared his thoughts on disseminating information on nutrition, food security, food safety, and diet. Mao shared that healthy food is an important part of accelerating the work of promoting the well-being of the Cambodian people through journalism and the work of professionals.
Mr. Mao Samnang said, “Through the knowledge, I have gained and the sharing of experiences from expert speakers, I understand that journalists can write more news topics related to nutrition knowledge or food safety, and these activities will make other Cambodian journalists more involved, especially focusing on promoting the well-being of women and children.”
Ms. Tuy Engly, a journalist from FYN Media and a third place winner also shared that she was happy that she won a prize in the first round and she plans to work hard to win the first prize or second prize in the second round of the competition.
Ms. Engly said, “In of the first round of competition, I did not write a lot of articles, so I placed third. I will try to write more articles in the second round of competition and I hope to win the first or second prize.”
Ms. Sim Salma, a journalist from Khmernas who won the second prize, shared the feeling that she is very happy that she won the second prize in the competition. She noted that even more than the prize, she gained more knowledge in writing a good article about nutrition, breastfeeding, and feeding of infants and children.
In the past, Salma did not understand or was not interested in writing nutrition articles, which are useful for women and mothers to understand breastfeeding. In general, she finds that a large number of women in Cambodia are very busy in business or work and they don’t feed their babies by breastfeeding, and almost 100% of them provide the babies with formula milk.
Ms. Sim Salma said, “I’ve learned a lot from the course of nutrition training and if I have a child, I will try to feed my baby by breastfeeding for at least six months […] In this second round I will try to write more articles to win the first prize.”
Article by: Tuy Engly (Sakura)
