The World Bank is granting Mozambique 1.6 million US dollars to finance a mass media institutional support project, in order to help Mozambican media to develop "coverage aimed at counseling and advocacy for the prevention of HIV/AIDS in the communities."

The project was formally launched by Mozambique's National Council for the Fight against AIDS (CNCS) in Maputo on Tuesday.

Various of the Mozambican media will be funded thus to improve their coverage of various aspects of the AIDS pandemic in the country.

The project will last 18 months. In an initial, experimental phase, lasting for six months, 562,000 dollars will be used. The second phase, covering the subsequent 12 months, will absorb 995,000 dollars, distributed to the local media in accordance with the results from the first phase.

Speaking at the ceremony, Mozambican Prime Minister Luisa Diogo, who chairs the CNCS, said that it is obligatory on all the media to contribute to the struggle against AIDS.

Diogo stressed that the mass media "are crucial to changing people's behavior and to transforming their attitudes," and added that the CNCS was encouraged by the media's commitment to the fight against the spread of the disease.

One of the main challenges, said Diogo, was the sustainability of the media's work. She hoped that, after 18 months, "the media will have a minimum of capacity to continue their coverage."

The CNCS Media Project officer, Jordao Muvale, said the CNCS regarded the media as determinant for "raising the general level of awareness in the communities, and for offering a critical space for approaching the cultural barriers which make changes in behavior difficult."

Muvale added that the media were key for advocacy on behalf of the victims of the epidemic, in the "fight against stigma and discrimination."

Support under the project will also go towards training journalists and towards the country's television and radio stations.

Source: Xinhua