Merck Foundation Announces Winners of “Stay at Home” Media Awards for COVID Reporting

The Nigerian radio journalist Ekene Odigwe is a winner of Merck Foundation's "Stay at Home" Media Awards.

Merck Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Merck KGaA Germany, has announced the winners of its “Stay at Home” Media Recognition Awards for Nigerian and Ghanaian journalists reporting the COVID-19 pandemic. The Awards’ theme is “Raising Awareness on How to Stay Safe and Keep Physically and Mentally Healthy During Coronavirus Lockdown.” For each country’s announcement, they partnered with the First Lady: Dr. Aisha Buhari of Nigeria and Rebecca Akufo-Addo of Ghana.

“I am very proud of our winners from Ghana and Nigeria who helped to educate the communities about COVID 19 through their exceptional work by frequently covering this topic in their respective countries,” said Dr. Rasha Kelej, CEO of Merck Foundation. “I have always believed that Media can play a very important role in sensitizing people about sensitive issues such as Coronavirus global pandemic. Big congratulations to all the winners.”

Dr. Kelej continued: “The valuable contribution from the winners in sensitizing their respective communities about COVID 19 has encouraged us to additionally reward them all to become Merck Foundation Alumni and provide them 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. This is to motivate passionate journalists to continue writing and advocating for social, economic and health issues across their countries.”

Here are the winners.

RADIO CATEGORY

NIGERIA

First Position

Ekene Odigwe, Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (Coalcity FM), NIGERIA (500 USD)

ONLINE CATEGORY

NIGERIA

First Position

Ishioma Emi Mary, Ventures Africa, NIGERIA (500 USD)
Ebere Agozie, GFH News, NIGERIA (500 USD)

Second Position

Odimegwu Onwumere, The Nigerian Voice, NIGERIA (300 USD)

GHANA

First Position

Albert Futukpor, Ghana News Agency, GHANA (500 USD)

Second Position

Lydia Kukua Asamoah, Ghana News Agency, GHANA (300 USD)

PRINT CATEGORY

NIGERIA

First Position

Impact Hub Lagos to Launch Post-COVID Support Programme for Businesses

Ojoma Akor, Daily Trust, NIGERIA (500 USD)

GHANA

First Position

Tekyiwaa Ampadu Agyeman, New Times Corporation (The Spectator), GHANA (500 USD)

MULTIMEDIA CATEGORY

NIGERIA

First Position

Aneta Felix, TV360 Nigeria, NIGERIA (500 USD)

GHANA

First Position

Grace Hammoah Asare, Media General, TV 3, GHANA (500 USD)

Second Position

Nana Yaw Gyimah Mensah, TV3 Network, GHANA (300 USD)
Wendy Laryea, TV3 Network, GHANA (300 USD)

Otosirieze Obi-Young

Otosirieze Obi-Young is a Nigerian writer, editor, journalist, and curator. As Editor of Folio Nigeria, he profiles innovators and facilitators in culture: business, art, photography, music, activism, health, food. He has extensive experience working in the African literary scene. He is currently the chair of judges for The Gerald Kraak Prize, Africa’s only award for social justice, sexuality, and gender, and he was a judge for The Morland Scholarship, Africa’s biggest grant. He was an editor at 14, Nigeria's first queer art collective, and Curator at The Art Naija Series, a sequence of e-anthologies exploring different aspects of Nigerianness. From late 2016 to early 2020, he led the transformation of the literary blog Brittle Paper to a standard platform, creating and administering The Brittle Paper Awards, the first by an African publication. His work in queer visibility advocacy has been profiled in Literary Hub. In 2019, he won the inaugural The Future Awards Africa Prize for Literature. In 2020, he was named among "The 100 Most Influential Young Nigerians" by Avance Media. He completed a collection of short stories in 2016 and his novel in 2020. He has an MA in African studies from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. From 2017 to 2018, he taught English at Godfrey Okoye University, Enugu. Find him on otosirieze.com or on Twitter & Insta: @otosirieze.