Children are taking vaccination into their own hands
The National Polio Campaign started with a lot of anxiety among the community members and partners after the death of vaccinators during the February Campaign. Coordination and preparation has been ongoing and is proceeding to increase the uptake and ensure that the 9.9 million children received the vaccine. Responding to the unpredicted situation in the country, the campaign has now been implemented in different modalities and UNICEF managed to secure the needed resources and has now mobilized around 7, 000 social mobilizers across the country to participate in the eradication of polio.
Site-to-site and mosque to mosque campaigns have a high risk of missing the children as women’s movements are restricted and cultural barriers have limited the participation of women in the campaigns, yet families understand the value of the vaccine and are making sure that their children are vaccinated.
It was very impressive to see siblings, boys and girls alike, running to mosques to ensure that the youngest did not miss the vaccine. Kids fill the courtyard of the mosque with laughter and in showing each other their marked fingers, while the rest are impatiently waiting to take the vaccine. Some of the oldest siblings waited outside to ensure that the youngest are safe and then escort them home.
Indeed, the children are surprisingly taking the matter of assuring vaccination into their own hands. We asked one 12-year-old boy and he said that his mother had told him to take his younger brother to the mosque so that he could receive the vaccine. We stopped another 13-year old who was carrying her younger sibling and again replied that her mother told him to take her younger sibling to the mosque to receive the vaccine. The girl continued by saying that she did not want her brother to get sick as polio is a bad disease.
UNICEF and its partners are also advocating for the House-to-House Campaign to increase the uptake in the vaccination of all the children in Afghanistan
