Now in its 29th Year, the Diamond Awards for Media Excellence (DAME) has called for entries of works produced in 2019. Nestlé Nigeria also calls on nutrition and wellness writers to take advantage of this opportunity to showcase and be recognized for their articles and stories in the ‘Nestlé Prize for Nutrition Reporting’ category of the DAME awards.

“The Nutrition Writers Category instituted in 2018 was born out of the need to not only reward, but also recognize, and celebrate excellence among nutrition and health writers. The award is part of Nestlé’s commitment to empower journalists who are gatekeepers to ensure the wellbeing of individuals and families by providing adequate information to help them make healthier nutrition choices. We achieve this by collaborating with other stakeholders including the Lagos Business School (LBS), the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) and DAME Trust Fund to provide training and support to produce more fact-based reporting. We have seen an improvement in the quality of the work submitted for ‘Nestlé Prize for Nutrition Reporting’ over the past two years and look forward to even better entries this year,” said Victoria Uwadoka, Corporate Communications and Public Affairs Manager, Nestlé Nigeria.

Winner of the Nestlé Prize for Nutrition Reporting 2019, Chioma Obinna of the Vanguard Newspapers said, “It was gratifying to be winner of the prestigious 2019 DAME Nutrition Reporting Category Award. The prizes were fabulous! Asides from the recognition and prize from DAME, I became a proud owner of a brand new laptop, an iPad and a full Nestlé pack. I am grateful to Nestlé for sponsoring the category. I will also like to thank the company for choosing Nutrition particularly at this time the country is facing challenges of malnutrition. While appealing to other corporate organizations to emulate Nestlé, I encourage journalists, particularly, health writers to participate in this year’s DAME.”

She encouraged all to submit their entries on the DAME website, www.dameawards.com on or before the close of business on Friday, October 16, 2020 as announced by the organisers. All categories open for entries include Nutrition Reporting, Agriculture Reporting and Education Reporting among others.

Speaking on the 3rd year of the Nestlé Prize for Nutrition Reporting, Mr. Lanre Idowu said, “The Diamond Awards for Media Excellence (DAME) was created to stimulate and reward the pursuit of excellence in media work. DAME has the privilege of being the only awards scheme in Nigeria, which covers the media disciplines of Journalism, Broadcasting and Advertising. We are, therefore, pleased with this collaboration with Nestlé Nigeria to host the Nutrition Awards. With all the challenges we face in the area of Nutrition, Nigeria certainly needs more well-equipped Nutrition and Health reporters to help improve the health indices. It is commendable that Nestlé does not only sponsor the awards, but also invests in continuous training of the media all through the year.”

In the past two years, Nestlé in collaboration with the Lagos Business School, Pan-Atlantic University have carried out several media training sessions for nutrition, health, wellness and agriculture reporters.