Overview
India has the world’s largest immunization programme. Every year the programme targets around 26.7 million infants and 29 million pregnant women. In the past years, due to special focus of the government in strengthening the immunization programme, the rate of immunization has significantly improved. But a lot more needs to be done to reach each and every child in the country. Due to large population, ignorance & resistance in the communities, the rate of immunization is very low. In hard to reach areas of the north-eastern parts of the country, especially Nagaland, Arunachal and Assam, the Full Immunization Coverage (FIC) status is quite low. Also, in many districts of Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Manipur the rate of FIC is below national average. The issue needs to be comprehensively addressed in order to achieve the 90% nation-wide immunization coverage target.
Lack of demand for immunization is also one of the critical factors in low uptake of immunization facilities. There are fears and misconceptions associated with immunization and their adverse effects within the community. The COVID-19 pandemic has further worsened the conditions. Due to several restrictions and engagement of health staff in COVID-19 work, immunization services have been hampered in most parts of the country.
Community institutions, both informal and formal, have long been recognized as a key influencer in individual and family behaviours, establishing norms, promoting behavioural practices, and ensuring behavioural compliance. CBOs offer a powerful, cost effective delivery platform to reach women and families directly. Therefore, VHAI and UNICEF collaborated for the present intervention which aims to empower the community based organizations (CBOs) to increase immunization coverage.
Objectives of the Project
- To empower the CBOs and influencers on social mobilization and community engagement to promote Routine Immunization, COVID-19 vaccination and COVID Appropriate Behaviours (CAB).
- To increase awareness in the community on routine immunization, COVID-19 vaccination and COVID appropriate behaviours contributing to improved coverage of routine immunization and COVID-19 Vaccination.
Geographical Area
This project is being implemented in 17 districts of 06 states of Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Nagaland and Odisha.
Key Activities
VHAI attended the interagency training workshop organised by UNICEF along with other partners (WHO and IFRC). This training workshop aimed to bring together AAP and RCCE stakeholders from UNICEF, WHO, IFRC, the government, international organizations, civil society, academia and other partners (including private sector) from the 8 countries in South Asia (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka) to learn and innovate for AAP and RCCE systems strengthening and prepare for future emergencies.
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Capacity building of the CBOs such as SHGs, Youth clubs, Women’s groups and influencers such as PRIs, religious leaders, community leaders was done to empower them for increasing immunization uptake in low performing districts of Andhra, Assam, Odisha, Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal. The CBOs and influencers engaged in the project are also working for the promotion of COVID-19 prevention in the community. Under the project, we have sensitized more than 1200 CBOs and 1350 influencers in the 17 intervention districts.
VHAI is conducting community consultations in the 40 blocks of 17 low performing districts. Community consultations facilitates an opportunity to interact with the community and provide relevant information to them. During community consultations, the community share their issues and concerns related to immunization. In the times of COVID-19, the community members are also being sensitized on the COVID appropriate behaviours and COVID-19 vaccination hesitancy. Around 1090 community consultations have been conducted since the inception of the project.
Under the project, VHAI with the support of local CBOs are continuously supporting the immunization sessions and VHSNDs in the intervention blocks. The district coordinators and trained CBOs are helping the health team in ensuring COVID appropriate behaviours along with counselling on COVID-19 precautions and handwashing demonstrations. The teams have also provided handwashing kits and IEC at the immunization sites. Around 2038 of such immunization sessions and VHNDs have been supported in all the intervention blocks. The CBOs engaged in the project have identified more than 3500 LODOR children and efforts are being done to bring them under the umbrella of immunization.
To increase the vaccine confidence among the community and address the issues of vaccine hesitancy, VHAI is engaging influencers such as religious leader who are playing a crucial role in persuading their community members to uptake the immunization services. Because of the support of these influencers, the project team has managed to bring the children of many ignorant and resistant families under immunization coverage.
The teams have conducted House Hold visits in the intervention villages to make the community people aware about Routine Immunization and COVID-19 vaccination especially among communities with high hesitancy and ignorance. The teams used IEC material during their household visits. A total of 45690 Households were visited during the reporting period.
VHAI, with support from local CSOs, CBOs & influencers are regularly conducting various activities like as key message dissemination through loudspeaker and wall paintings to mobilize the communities on Routine Immunization and COVID-19 vaccination. Through this VHAI is reaching some of the lowest performing, difficult and remote areas of Assam, Manipur, Arunachal, Nagaland, Andhra and Odisha. More than 3,80,000 people were reached through our mass awareness activities.
Under the project, identification of LODOR children was done through community consultations and household visits and with the help of village leaders. Once the child is identified, the team approached local ASHA to get them registered for immunization. In case of resistant families, the support of influencers is taken to mobilize the families. On the day of immunization, CBOs ensures that the identified LODOR child reach the VHND site. A total of 3500 LODOR children in the intervention blocks were identified, out of which 80% of the children were successfully brought under the umbrella of immunization.
In the ongoing project, VHAI has been continually working on sensitizing the people in intervention areas on the importance of handwashing and handwashing techniques. In the context of the COVID-19 outbreak, VHAI team and the engaged CBOs and influencers have intensified efforts and are ensuring that majority people get aware about the importance of handwashing and start practicing it.
