RAISE for Sahel Team braves Odds to Mora to update their Micro Plan to Health Workers, Community Leaders
“To come here, we had to be escorted by the military. We have curfews from 6 pm to 6 am, and every movement
after this time is risky. Though it has several setbacks, it remains one of the sustaining methods to curb Boko-haram activities in the area,” Abdoulai Bouba, medical staff at Waza Health District explained.
Mora is another Health District in the Far North selected to implement the Zero-Dose Immunisation Program (ZIP) executed by the RAISE for Sahel (R4S) project in fragile and conflict communities out of government reach.
With 17 Health Areas and over 300,000 inhabitants, Mora Health District is one of the largest in the Far North region. Its vast borders with Nigeria made it more vulnerable to Boko haram attacks, causing waves of migration in the sector. “A health facility was burnt down in Meme, and we have four refugee camps of internally displaced persons here,” said Mahama Oumateh, the Communication focal person of Meme.
Insecurity, limited outreach activities, stock out, and poor cold chain, coupled with the district’s mountainous nature and the people’s limited health-seeking behaviours, made vaccination coverage a daunting task. “We often use the quick-in and out strategy in most communities, yet we still have a lot of missing children because some have migrated to far places for security reasons”, Natolga Bruno, Chief of Center of Waza, added.
The R4S project team arrived in Mora Health District on April 20 to work with staff drawn from the Health District office, 17 health areas, community health workers, and members of dialogue structures to empower them to update their micro plans for better results.
Participants were drilled on how to use the tools produced by the R4S team and the areas to focus on while updating micro plans. The regional EPI coordinator seized the opportunity to remind the district staff to be meticulous, as false information may result in adverse outcomes.
After the presentations, participants had an extended question-and-answer session to clear their doubts. It is hoped that this exercise will run for two weeks, after which the district teams will meet again to clean the data for use.
These documents would help the RAISE4SAHEL team to strategize adequately.