Malawi: Blantyre District Environmental Health Officer, Innocent Mvula is happy to see the success of the Healthy Strengthening Immunisation System Project. He believes that involvement of 33 Mother Care Groups as mobilisers has contributed to improved child vaccine coverage in the district.
Mvula announced that vaccine coverage in children under the age of five years has greatly improved. Thee latest information suggests that the vaccination coverage has increased to almost 89 percent with inclusion of mother groups.
He added that the district used to register 79 percent before the Health Strengthening Immunisation System Project was introduced with Malawi Equity Health Network (MEHN) as lead partner.
“Mother Care Groups are able to mobilise resources to boost immunisation coverage here in Blantyre. As such, we are working with them as our link with the communities.
“Before the groups were taken in, we had a lot of challenges like; follow-up of zero-dose children and lack of community advocacy on vaccine and Immunisation,” he said, adding that communities are largely participating in immunization following mother care groups active engagement on issues of child health.
He has encouraged communities to embrace child vaccine and immunization to promote child health. He also called on stakeholders in the health sector to invest more in Mother Care Groups.
Blantyre District Environmental Health Officer, Innocent Mvula highlighted that they are key to vaccine coverage. Vice Chairperson of Mpendekera Mother Care Group, Maria Ligawo, of Traditional Authority (TA) Lundu in Blantyre also offered her views on the issue.
She said the care group play an active role in working with health workers in providing vaccine to many children than before.
“Before our involvement in child vaccination, most children got sick very often and most women used to spend three days in hospital with sick children. Our group mobilises families to vaccinate their under five children,” said Ligawo who expressed satisifaction with increased number of children that access vaccine in her area following intensified community mobilisation.
She also dicussed the lack of reliable mode of transportation to reach every under five child and lack of necessary tools such as vaccine storage boxes as limiting factors that needs to be addressed by health authorities and partners.
Healthy Strengthening Immunisation System Project is being implemented in Blantyre, Lilongwe, Mchinji, Dowa, Ntchisi, Kasungu, Mzimba South, Mzimba North and Chitipa by MHEN through Ministry of Healthy and other partners with funding from GAVI amounting to US$ 3 million.
MHEN is an independent alliance of organisations and individuals that seeks promote equity and quality health for all in Malawi.