When AfriChild staff converged at Grand Global Hotel in Kikoni on March 14, 2019, little did they know that the day would turn out to be knowledge, practice, and fun packed. It was a day set aside for them to build their capacities in the communication areas of documentation and social media usage.
Two independent consultants, John Baptist Imokola and Exceed Communications Ltd conducted the documentation and social media training respectively. The morning session on documentation and presentation led by Imokola covered topics such as why should we communicate research; public perception on child-focused research on children issues in Uganda; steps in communicating research; channels of communication and tips on communicating research.
In explaining why research should be communicated, Imokola told staff that it is inevitable that research is communicated in a bid to share new knowledge, influence policy and provide accountability.
In explaining why research should be communicated, Imokola told staff that it is inevitable that research is communicated in a bid to share new knowledge, influence policy and provide accountability.
JB Imokola
“Without research dissemination, we risk having policies that are not relevant to the communities for whom those policies are made,”
He added that in communicating research, an organization ought to use multiple avenues of dissemination, familiarize with related research, summarize key messages from the study, explain and defend the research methodology, relate the research to a current problem and keep engaging for new ideas or perspectives.
In addition to the documentation training, staff received skills in the use of social media platforms of Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Facebook. The Exceed Communications Ltd team lead by Michael Mubangizi engaged AfriChild staff in the purposes of having a social media plan, engaging in topical discussions on the social media platforms and using applications such as Canva and Kinemaster to create graphics and videos for the sites respectively. Building capacity of the current staff to meet their key responsibilities in communications is an essential part of programme implementation.
