Multimedia Group Limited’s multiple award-winning journalist, Seth Kwame Boateng, has won yet again another prestigious award, the Global Health Reporting contest.
Seth Kwame Boateng has been adjudged winner together with four others from Brazil, China, Benin and India of the International Center for Journalists’ 2017 award for his story that focused on the state of healthcare at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Ghana.
Seth Kwame Boateng becomes the first Ghanaian to win this prestigious award.
“ICFJ received many applications from around the world, so you should be very proud of your accomplishment”, Vice President of Programs at the International CFJ, Emily Schult, said this in an email announcing Seth Kwame Boateng.
A panel of international judges selected the 2014 Ghana Journalist Association Journalist of the year as the winner of the International Center for Journalists’ 2017 Global Health Reporting Contest for his “Next to Die” Special Assignment documentary.
Ghana’s First Lady Rebecca Akufo-Addo in partnership with The Multimedia Group Limited has been raising funds towards the construction of a new Maternity as well as Mother and Baby Unit MBU) for the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), to ease the congestion there. That ward will have five maternity beds, three operating rooms, four emergency delivery beds, 20 incubators and 20 phototherapy units. It will be an insulated building with forced cooling and it will reduce avoidable deaths by 60-80 percent.
The old dungeon had only two maternity beds, two operating rooms with tens of pregnant women queuing, sometimes to be operated upon in a period of an emergency. The move to put up an emergency maternity and mother and baby unit at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital follows a JoyNews Special Assignment documentary “Next to Die” which highlighted how about four babies die on the average each day at the facility, and how an average of 100 women die each year, while in labour there.
As a winner of the contest, ICFJ has invited the multiple award winner to the United States for a study tour focusing on global health issues.
Mr. Boateng and the other contest winners will visit Washington, D.C., Atlanta and New York to meet health experts and journalists. He will also receive a prestigious award for his story at an Awards Dinner in New York.
The event will feature a panel of experts engaging in a dialogue on urgent health matters.
“It is important that Mr. Boateng is present at the event as he will be able to connect with other contest winners as well as members of various prominent media, health, and communication professionals to contribute to a robust and collaborative network of health reporters”, the statement said.
ICFJ’s mission is to advance quality journalism worldwide. Our hands-on programs combine the best professional practices with new technologies.
On June 24, 2017, Seth won the Exclusive Men of The Year Africa Award (EMY AFRICA AWARDS) in the Communication Category for his impactful stories that continue to change lives in his community. The EMY Awards, created in 2016, are designed to recognize Ghanaian men whose passion and dedication have instituted major development at both the familial and national levels.
In June 2017, the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) named Seth Kwame Boateng as the first winner of its Journalist of the Month Series in recognition of his compelling television documentary that raised alarm and prompted action on the devastating maternal and child mortality situation in Ghana’s second largest medical facility.
ICFJ’s mission is to advance quality journalism worldwide. Its hands-on programs combine the best professional practices with new technologies.