USAID Armenia, UNICEF and World Vision Armenia hosted a media award ceremony on January 20 to recognize the winners of the recently held media contest. The initiative aimed to promote ethical and balanced media coverage of child health and child nutrition issues in Armenia.

The jury of experts had selected eight finalists among subject-related media materials aired or published between August and October 2015. As top finalists, Amalia Gabrielyan from NEWS.am and Liana Margaryan from RADIO VAN both received the main award of the contest -- a tablet, while six other finalists with high scores received incentive awards from USAID and UNICEF.

UNICEF and World Vision Armenia organized the media contest in 2015 within the framework of the USAID-funded “Improving Infant and Young Child Health and Nutrition” project. The goal of the project is to reduce malnutrition in women and children during the first 1,000 days – from conception to 24 months of age.

Within the framework of the project, partners support the local primary health care facilities to provide quality services in health and nutrition, organize public outreach events and training sessions for parents of infants and young children to improve child nutrition and care, as well as work towards improvement of child nutrition monitoring and evaluation mechanisms at community, regional and national levels.