Community Health Workers Capacitated on Vaccination in Practice and ZDC Tracking Log
The Bakassi Health District is constituted of health areas with riverine communities and accessibility to the area in the meantime is only through the Sea. The cost of transportation is also high thereby hindering the movements of inhabitants (who are mostly Nigerians). The limited and unavailability of health personnel is discouraging for the handful who care to seek medical care, especially vaccination of their children. Engaging Community Health Workers who spent most of their time in the community will assist in navigating the hard-to-reach and underserved communities which is a hub for zero-dose children. However, most are not properly orientated to carry out vaccination and also document the activity.
It’s against this backdrop that with the GAVI supported Projects to reach zero dose and under-immunized children the RAISE for Sahel ZIP Project in collaboration with the Regional Expanded Program for Immunization Southwest has trained Community Health Workers (CHW) and Chiefs of leading health facilities in Bakassi Health District. The 20 community health workers and 5 Chief of Centers were capacitated on Vaccination in practice, EPI Data gathering/ reporting tools, and the zero dose children (ZDC) tracking log amongst others.
The training, embedded in the ZIP initiative’s detailed implementation plan, took place on September 1, 2023, at the District Health Service Conference Hall in Isangele – the administrative seat of the Bakassi Peninsula. The purpose of the training was to equip community health workers and Chiefs of Center with skills in planning, implementing, as well as monitoring, and reporting vaccination activities in the community and also present a scope of the ZIP Initiative. Emphasis was laid on the new vaccination calendar, the catch-up calendar, health facility-level planning with the community, and monitoring. The facilitators who were the Regional Data Manager and RAISE for Sahel Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning officer worked the participants through the tools in a practical session. The Regional Coordinator of R4S presented an overview of the project reiterating the need to identify, reach, and immunize children in the community.
Present at the start of the ceremony was the Divisional Officer of Isangele Subdivision, Mr. Messina Joseph who saluted the ZIP Initiative in Bakassi. The D.O. indicated that ZIP is a welcome Initiative to provide quality health care. He promised the security of all persons present for the training.
The District Medical Officer (DMO), Dr. Eyong Clinton on his part, beckoned on the COCs and CHWs alike to implement the training in other to boost their indicators.
It’s worth noting that the Bakassi Health District has poor indicators in EPI. As recounted by the Community Health Workers, the difficult accessibility to health facilities, insecurity due to rampant pirate kidnapping, poor health-seeking behavior health by the population, misinformation, birth at home and through traditional birth attendants, cultural beliefs, limited and absenteeism of health personnel, movement of parents or displacement to other health areas or to Nigeria contribute to the high zero dose children in Bakassi.
“They are in their community, it will be somehow difficult for them to abandon their people…we plead they are supported especially in the area of transportation to effectively carryout vaccination,” Chief of Health Area of Kombo Adedimo pleaded.
The team from the health areas were encouraged to plan vaccination sessions immediately when the skills learned during the training will be put into practice. All the health areas received registers, tally sheets, ZDC tracking logs, monitoring curves, and an updated version of the vaccination calendar.
