Media Resource Centre on HIV/AIDS opens in Lagos
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Wednesday, May 30 2001 is the D-day for the formal opening of Nige-
ria's first resource centre and a new website dedicated to providing
information on HIV/AIDS and reproductive health issues for the media
and the general public.
The Media Resource Centre on HIV/AIDS and Reproductive Health/Rights,
the first of its kind in the country, is a project of Journalists
Against AIDS (JAAIDS) Nigeria, a media-based HIV/AIDS advocacy or-
ganisation founded by a group of journalists in 1997.
Located at 1st Floor, 42 Ijaye Road, Ogba, Lagos, the resource centre
will provide electronic and non-electronic information resources on
HIV/AIDS, reproductive health and other health issues to journalists
and other members of the public. Facilities at the centre include a
documentation library stocking HIV-related literature, research re-
ports, CD-ROMs, disks, audio-visual materials etc.
Other facilities include a training room, a TV/Radio viewing / moni-
toring service a well as a training room that will host regular
monthly seminars and workshops on health and development reporting
for journalists.
In addition, it will provide free Internet service to journalists to
enable them access health information online. The centre will also be
open to members of the public, especially journalism training insti-
tutions and non-governmental organisations that do not have the re-
sources on their own to set up a health information resource facil-
ity.
Journalists Against AIDS will also use the occasion to launch its new
website <http://www.nigeria-aids.org>, which is designed to be the
one-stop online resource centre on HIV/AIDS in Nigeria and West Af-
rica. On the website, members of the public will be able to find the
latest statistics on HIV/AIDS in all countries of West Africa, browse
HIV-related abstracts, research reports and presentations and also
join in an electronic conference on HIV/AIDS in Nigeria.
Omololu Falobi, Project Director of the organisation, said he hoped
the opening of the resource centre and the new website would facili-
tate a radical improvement in the frequency, depth and quality of re-
porting of HIV/ AIDS and other reproductive health issues in the Ni-
gerian media. Dignitaries expected at the event include representa-
tives of the Lagos State government, the media and members of the NGO
community.
For further information and enquiries, contact:
Princess Olufemi-Kayode
Media Programmes Officer
1st Floor, 42 Ijaye Road, Ogba
Lagos, Nigeria
Tel: +234-1-492-1292
mailto:resourcecentre@nigeria-aids.org
or
mailto:princess_opak@yahoo.com
http://www.nigeria-aids.org
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