Mr Dickens Thunde, National Director for the WVI, said the organisation promopted child advocacy and therefore decided to sponsor this year’s GJA award for the reportage on child abuse and child rights protection.

    “The WVI recognises the media and media practitioners as major allies in the quest to ensure that children are protected from abuse, neglect, exploitation and violence.

    “The WVI serves as a relief, development and advocacy organisation dedicated to the well-being of children, it’s response to these issues has been to join forces with like-minded institutions to ignite movements to raise awareness and drive courageous and effective actions,” he said.

    Mr Dickens said together with the media, the WVI constituted a more formidable force and voice to see to it that child protection was strengthened and that laws, policies and systems existed and were working efficiently.

    “We are committed to strengthening prevention, response and restorative measures to address violence against boys and girls. As we do this together with the media, it is just appropriate that we recognise, train and award media practitioners who have been elected to champion the cause of the well-being of children here in Ghana.

    “It is in this connection that the World Vision Ghana is partnering the GJA to celebrate and motivate hard working journalists,” he added.

    He further stated that the organisation would train reporters in child protection in 2018.

    He said the training would ensure that reporters were equipped with an appreciable technical knowledge of child protection and participation concepts, issues and skills in the gathering of content to enable them to report on the issues from an informed position.

    Mrs Hannah Agbozo, Chief Officer for Legal and External Affairs at AirtelTigo Ghana, said, the organization was excited to extend its support to the Awards and had been supporting the event for the past three years through its previous brand Tigo.

    She stated that AirtelTigo was proud to sponsor the Best Telecommunications Reporter category of the awards.

    “As a respected telecom brand that is extending connectivity and providing innovative products and services, we know that technology is changing how we consume media and enabling greater access to information, therefore the role and contribution of journalists to the total development of Ghana cannot be underestimated,” she said.

    “AirtelTigo is proud to have the opportunity to support the work of the media, as a telecom and digital services provider, we are committed to offering quality services both in voice and data and will continue to provide solutions that will help small scale enterprises [SMEs] to remain sustainable,” she added.

    Mr Roland Affail Monney, President of the GJA, said the partnership between the two parties had been strategic over the years.

    He said the best approach to recognise the media was to reward practitioners for their work.