Features of Health Messenger
The magazine is an open media and welcomes articles contributed by health professionals from the MoH, NGOs, UN organizations and cooperation agencies. It is a venue where guest writers share their knowledge and experience to provide relevant and updated medical information and develop the skills of the target readers.
Bilingual publication
All articles are published in Khmer and English. Many of the MoH health staff do not read in English. Therefore they have limited access to updated medical reading material. Health Messenger offers necessary information in their mother tongue and at the same time can act as a tool for improving their proficiency in English. This, in turn, provides health staff with additional opportunities for professional growth and improves their self confidence.
Attractive and awareness raising media
Health Messenger is colourful, with many illustrations, to stimulate reading. The magazine aims at addressing public health issues, but is also largely open to social issues, emphasizing how illness, poverty, economy and lack of education are interrelated and affect one another.
Each edition has a strong focus on health education and encourages health staff to play a major role in spreading key messages to the community. Information on inter-personal communication skills, counselling and behavioural change is emphasized.
Reference material
By providing IEC/Health Education material in the form of a magazine, Health Messenger acts as a job aid and reference book – a continuous training tool - that is kept and used by health staff. The contents do not need to be committed to memory, but can be referred to instead, whenever necessary. This is of particular importance where the content is complex or where health information is to be transferred to patients and communities. |
