Ghanaian Journalist Wins WHO Fellowship

Miss Rosemary Ardayfio, acting Women's Page Editor of The Daily Graphic has won the World Health Organization Journalism Fellowship Program. She is one of the seven successful candidates selected from more than 200 applicants for the Media Fellowship Program.

The Fellowship which is the first to be organized by WHO covers a two week attachment in the World Health Organization Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland and a third week of field experience in the Republic of Cameroun. A letter nominating Ms. Ardayfio said "you had an enormous competition but the Fellowship's Board thought your background and references were exceptional".

The World Health Organization Journalism Fellowship made up of two components is aimed at giving the journalists a broad and deep understanding of the forces shaping global public health.

The first phase of the Fellowship will be a two-week attachment to the WHO Headquarters during which the Fellows will take a trip to Lyons, France to visit the Communicable Diseases Surveillance and Response Center and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC)- a cancer research facility and Laboratory program.

Ms Ardayfio whose topic for the Fellowship is Buruli Ulcer will spend the last week of the fellowship in the Republic of Cameroon to study the buruli ulcer situation in that country.

She will also attend the International training workshop on Surgical Management of Buruli Ulcer in Cotonou, Benin from 06-12 October 2002 from where she leaves for Geneva.

Ms. Ardayfio has been a pioneer in health reporting in Ghana and has since 1986 been the health correspondent for Daily Graphic She has covered a wide range of health issues including HIV/AIDS, Malaria, Tuberculosis, Bururli Ulcer, Nutrition, and Tobacco of which she currently heads an NGO of Media people in the control of the use tobacco.

She has also covered several international and national conferences and seminars including the World AIDS Conferences. She also serves on several Health Committees.