28/05/2018
SHUMAS/ UNICEF AND THE NORTH WEST REGIONAL DELEGATION OF PUBLIC HEALTH VACCINATED CLOSE TO 400 CHILDREN IN 5 HEALTH DISTRICTS.
The Strategic Humanitarian Services (SHUMAS), in collaboration with UNICEF and the North West regional delegation of Public Health have partnered to reduce the number of children who have never been vaccinated from birth and those who dropped out from the vaccination train in five health districts of the North West region. The Regional Delegate of Public Health, Dr.Che Soh Kingsley congratulated the non-governmental organization SHUMAS for its interest in the welfare of children while calling on women to develop responsible attitudes and take their children to hospitals when the need arises. “The project targeted a very key issue we are facing in the region which is low vaccination coverage. Today we are happy to get good results from the communities. Quite a number of children were recovered from the communities. Over 300 children who were not taking vaccines were recovered. We hope it continues to other districts. It’s not about money. Let us not look at it as a job. It is all about ownership” said Dr. Che SOH Kingsley.
An experience sharing forum on the project, “identification and leading to vaccination drop out children and zero dose cases in 5 health districts of the North West region of Cameroon”, took place on Friday May 25, at the conference hall of SHUMAS in the presence of representatives of the 30 women groups from the selected districts. The project was launched in 2017,with Bafut and Bali in Mezam division,Mbengwi and Batibo in Momo division and Benakuma in Menchum as targeted districts. The project had as main objective to improve the rate of routine vaccination coverage to at least 90% in the 5 health . SHUMAS charged with executing the project, used women groups, whereby they were trained on strategies to identify and vaccinate dropped out children and zero dose cases through door to door visits, sensitization, and close supervision from the project team and the Expanded Program for Immunization (EPI) unit of the Regional Delegation of Public Health. Following the training of women’s groups, community based organizations and focal point communication; over 15000 people were sensitized on the importance of routine vaccination through door to door visits and public places like meeting houses, churches and markets.
According to statistics gathered by the SHUMAS team from the field, some 1186 dropped out vaccination cases were sorted out in the 5 districts with an additional 227 zero dose cases identified with Benakuma having the highest number of dropped out and zero dose cases. An overall percentage of 42.98% of the children identified or unidentified in the registers but seen in the communities were successfully vaccinated and parents sensitized to continue the vaccination process. The head of the EPI unit, Dr Sama Julius, comparing the coverage of last year 2017 and the covered months of the current project, said there was a slight increase in two districts (Bafut and Bali) although it was actually a rough year for all the health districts in the region, due to the escalating Anglophone crisis. He however regretted that some health personnel didn’t collaborate with the women’s groups which somehow affected their output.The North West and West representative of UNICEF, Serge Akono, said the organization was going to continue supporting SHUMAS in the project so as to save lives. SHUMAS runs a health program in the country, which involves the rehabilitation and construction of rural and urban poor health infrastructures, equipping health centres, training of state registered nurses for rural health centers to solve the problem of inadequate qualified staff and routine vaccination.
Credit: Brenda Kiven
