“I can confirm that the Women In News (WIN) graduates do not return the same after the programme,” says Annabelle Iraki, Head of Human Resources and Administration at Mediamax Network Limited, a Kenyan media house with newspapers, television stations and radios when she held discussions with members of the WAN-IFRA Women in News Programme, Africa programme.
“They are more confident, more enlightened, have ideas that they would like to implement and on our part we provide them the opportunity to practice what they have learnt,” said Iraki. Three Mediamax members of staff have gone through the WIN programme and a fourth one has just joined the new cohort which has started the programme now.
According to WIN Africa Director, Dr.Tikhala Chibwana, these sentiments from employers are not isolated. Consistently, employer after employer are providing feedback that their staff after undergoing the WIN programme return to the newsroom better equipped and energised. We are told that they are better motivated and they are focussed, says Chibwana.
“This positive feedback means we are doing something right and the programme is yielding positive results,” says Chibwana. He says during the visit to Mediamax, they discussed ways in which their two organisations can strengthen their co-operation and work together in the near future to advance gender mainstreaming in the media.
The WIN programme has been operating in Kenya for three years now and this initiative is made possible by the support of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs which is also supporting the programme in Malawi and Tanzania.
