Building Partnerships For Covid-19 Prevention
To facilitate Covid-19 prevention, grassroots women leaders, facilitated by SSP in 8 Blocks of Osmanabad, Maharashtra are organising vaccination drives & awareness campaign for 100% vaccination in rural villages with the support from National Stock Exchange Foundation.
It was observed that vaccination drives organized by the Government were not well attended for a variety of reasons that included fear & misconceptions. Women leaders, facilitated by SSP, partnered with the local government to organize cluster level vaccination camps to maximize the participation of villagers. On 13th October, 2021, a vaccination camp was organized in Ranjani village, which saw an attendance of 318 people. Additionally, on 18th October, 2021, a vaccination camp was held in Diksal & Moha villages. 941 people attended these camps from Diksal, Moha & their surrounding villages.
“We are surprised to see the positive responses from the communities after our awareness program and household visits. Many people cleared their doubts about vaccination and they are helping us to achieve 100% vaccination in the village,” says Kranti Ikhe, a Primary Health Center Coordinator from Ranjani village.
Fostering partnerships with the local government authorities and the health establishment was recognized as a priority for ensuring success of the vaccination drives. The team reached out to the Gram Panchayat and Covid Sahayata Samiti, as well as the block level authorities, and the local PHCs for support. Working with the PHC staff and ASHA workers, the team was able to identify and target unvaccinated community members. The village task force team carried out campaigns by visiting every household, made use of an audio-visual van with awareness videos and distributed pamphlets to spread the message about the vaccination drive. On the day of the vaccination camp, a vehicle was made available to ferry older and disabled people.
These camps were notably different from earlier efforts due to the participation of a large number of villagers. They also showed how the support of the community and local government machinery is essential for the success of such events.