By Thoboloko Ntšonyane
MASERU – As Lesotho continues to face natural disasters and crises, the European Union (EU) Lesotho has held a briefing with the local reporters to apprise them of their mitigation efforts and to expand their capacity for efficient reportage.
Not only does the media’s role is to inform and report to the public but it also has a watchdog role to play within the society, the role journalists play through demanding accountability and transparency.
The European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO) Head of Office for Southern Africa and the Indian Ocean, Alexandre Castellano said the EU avails funds and resources to countries and organizations to intervene in the national disasters and crises.
This was said during the media briefing on Friday.
He also highlighted that during the El-Nino-induced droughts, the EU offered cash assistance to the most affected households.
He further mentioned that their programs address the victims’ basic needs, adding that they provide capacity building to support the stakeholders to best respond to the disasters even before they occur. He also underscored the importance of having proposition stock that are near to the beneficiaries so that there is no waiting for identifying and averting the risk.
Castellano expressed delight with the journalists’ meeting saying media plays an important role in society.
“I think the synergies that media has with the humanitarian actors in the past have no need to be further strengthened to ensure that there is a good knowledge about the situations and the needs to be addressed,” he said.
ECHO has for the past three decades provided humanitarian aid and assistance to over 110 countries across the world, in Europe, Africa, Asia, and Latin America to the victims of disasters each year.
Lesotho is funded under the following three pillars; Emergency response humanitarian food assistance; Education in Emergencies and Disaster Preparedness which is part of the regional strategy of the EU’s ECHO in the Southern Africa and Indian Ocean (SAIO).
In Lesotho, the EU provides emergency relief responses such as nutrition assistance, education in emergencies, and disaster preparedness.
For the 2016 – 2022 period, ECHO has earmarked the humanitarian funding running north of €15.7 million (M262 million).
One of the participants, Nthatua Koeshe, a journalist with the Newsday Newspaper said the briefing was an opener wherein her horizons of knowledge on EU humanitarian work are increased, and now is better equipped for the in-depth reporting of the criticality of these issues.
“The briefing was very informative and with all that I gathered from the conversations we had, I will be able to approach EU-related stories with an open eye because I [now] understand more about ECHO and the work it’s doing in the country,” she said.
Some of the humanitarian assistance programmes that are supported by the EU Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid include the projects administered by World Food Programme (WFP) Lesotho, United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) Lesotho, and World Vision Lesotho.
