The Eswatini Daily News has been put on the Regional Map, as one of its contributing writers, Faith Mzungu-Vilakati has won the Merck Foundation Award for Southern African countries.
The winning article titled “Rising Above “Stay at Home” was published on 9 May 2020. It speaks to the sudden changes brought about by Covid-19 and how citizens in Eswatini and the world beyond are adapting physically, mentally and emotionally to the new normal.
The Merck Foundation is the philanthropic arm of Merck KGaA Germany that aims to improve the health and wellbeing of people and advance their lives through science and technology. The Foundation strongly believes in Media’s role in educating and sensitizing communities about health and sensitive issues such as COVID-19.
The goal of the ‘Stay At Home’ Media Recognition Awards was to recognize and reward the work of journalists in Southern African Countries for their remarkable work in sensitizing their communities with factual information about the Coronavirus pandemic. After review by the Media Awards Committee, Mzungu-Vilakati shared the second position in the Online category with another Zimbabwean writer.
“I am just happy that I was able to be of service to humanity by providing important information and facts about COVID-19. In this time of the pandemic, we have come to the realization that demonstrating all the other virtues that God gave us such as love, kindness, generosity is very important. And if we can do this while doing our work, then we have done the greatest service to humanity,” said Mzungu-Vilakati.
The award value is 300 USD. Additionally, the writer also becomes Merck Foundation Alumni, and will be provided with one-year access to online educational training program called “MasterClass”.
The Masterclass is an immersive online experience and self-paced learning course in English that can be accessed anywhere with the Internet. The MasterClass includes extensive pre-recorded video content for many experts, a class workbook, interactive assignments, and community activities. This offering from Merck Foundation aims to motivate passionate journalists to continue writing and advocating for social, economic and health issues across their countries.
