Catholic Sister Communicators from ten different Congregations have been trained in news writing as part of an ongoing media and communication project organised by the Conference of Major Superiors of Religious-Ghana (CMSRG) in collaboration with Conrad Hilton Foundation and Sisters of Mary Mother of the Church (SMMC).
The first phase of the training project was held in Kumasi in May 2024, while the second phase of the training was at the Holy Spirit Cathedral in Accra from July 26 to 28, 2024.
It was facilitated by Global Newswatch Media and Communications, an organisation in Ghana that offers multi-media and communications services and managers of online news portal newswatchgh.com, a registered Online News Agency in Ghana with the aim of providing cutting-edge news on Religion and Social Development.
Mr. Gameli Attipoe, a Communications Expert who took the Sisters through a session on the theoretical aspect of news and feature writing, said, news “is perceived as an idea, problem or event that is significant depending on its ability to be of interest to people.”
“Furthermore, news serves as information that helps people to structure or organise themselves and make sound decisions about their lives. It could be politically, socially, economically, ideologically or religiously oriented,” he added.
Mr. Attipoe urged the Sisters to conduct research, investigation and interviews to be able to write good stories for publishing, for their audience to know what they do.
The core objectives of the media training of the Women Religious are to focus on promoting effective Communication of Sister Communicators in Women Religious Congregations in Ghana, developing the writing skills of the Religious to tell their own stories on projects and establishing a continuous framework to update their knowledge in media and communications activities.
Mr. Damian Avevor, the Director of News and Editorial at Global Newswatch Media and Communications and the Supervising Editor of Newswatchgh.com, who was one of the facilitators, asked the participants to attach seriousness to the training to enable them write good stories to project their Religious activities.
Mr. Avevor, onetime News Editor of The Catholic Standard, the National Catholic Weekly, urged them to arm themselves with the cardinal principles of news writing such as being factual, credible, objective, fair and balanced.
The Sisters had practical sessions in news writing on activities they engaged in during the workshop and were also given assignments to write feature stories.
In an interview, Sr. Cecilia Afari, the Coordinator of the project, spoke on how far the eighteen months project had gone and expressed her hopes for the future.
She said that so far the first training in Kumasi had had enormous impact on the Sister Communicators who were able to write and publish their own stories.
“So far the three objectives of the project are almost achieved with the registration of the media network and the development of a website are 90 percent done and being monitored by Global Newswatch Media and Communications,” she indicated.
Sr. Afari’s hope was that a Communication desk would be created at the Secretariat of the Conference of Major Superiors of Religious-Ghana.
By Sr. Georgina Inkum, FST, Sr. Michelle Ankrah, SSL, Sr. Maria Gabriella Yankey, HDR, Sr. Catherine Landjekpo, NDE (Sister Communicators)
