Immunisation Advocacy Champions

Rashid Mang’anda is a registered nurse working at the Phalombe District Hospital, Malawi. Rashid is the district coordinator for Maternal and Child Health programme. He is also the COVID-19 surveillance and response focal person.

After taking part in the Storytelling Challenge and following continued low acceptance and uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine, Rashid explored health care worker vaccine hesitancy as one of the main attributing factors. He organised a COVID-19 vaccine advocacy campaign targeting all health care workers of all cadres in the district of Phalombe. The team of facilitators travelled around health facilities in the district in order to address…

• myths and misconceptions about COVID19

• characteristics of COVID-19 vaccines

• vaccine hesitancy among healthcare workers

Rashid also visited secondary and tertiary boarding schools to assess COVID-19 preparedness and to advocate for the COVID-19 vaccine.

The objectives were to:

• Improve COVID-19 vaccine uptake through vaccine advocacy

• Enhance coordination between health and education departments

• Assess and perform COVID-19 tests on students.

In recent times, Rashid and his team have had to deal with the impact of flooding across the district and have continued to work hard to bring the vaccine to those living in refugee camps.

Rose Nakame is a registered nurse working in Uganda and is the Executive Director of REMI East Africa, a health equity NGO.

Following her participation in the Storytelling Challenge, Rose decided to invest her prize money in creating storytelling training to encourage health workers in rural and semi-urban areas in Uganda to share their experiences through storytelling while carrying out COVID-19 vaccination.

Through REMI East Africa, Rose conducted the storytelling training for COVID-19 vaccine equity and acceptance and introduced the importance of sharing experiences and telling stories as a way of advocating for change.

Rose spoke to several nurses and midwives about their experience of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout and created these videos to share their stories with the world.  

Mpho Shelile is a nurse-midwife currently working as a lecturer at the National University of Lesotho.

“My solution involved capacity development for community and primary health care nurses on versatility and effective engagement skills to address COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy as well a show to use stories,” explained Mpho.

Mpho contacted hospital nurse managers and briefed them on the project and began to train nurses and provide them with the necessary skills to engage with communities and promote increased COVID-19 vaccine acceptance.

Amy is a Staff Nurse working on an Orthopedic/Vascular Medical Surgical unit at NYP/Weill Cornell. As a Charge Nurse, Preceptor, and Co-Chair of the Nursing Communications Committee, Amy enjoys engaging with other nurses from diverse backgrounds. Amy was the 2021 Nursing Clinical Excellence Award: Rising Star at NYP/Weill Cornell and recently began her Master’s degree in advanced clinical leadership and management at Columbia University.

Having been selected as a winner of the Nursing Now Challenge and Sabin Vaccine Institute Storytelling Challenge, Amy created the project, “Frontline Friends.”