Vaccination Outreach Day

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The truck bumps and rattles at speed over pot-holed dirt roads. Past grasslands and villages of thatched round mud huts, Medair?s health team travels for three hours through early-morning Southern Sudan. They see groups of nomadic Falata women in colourful clothes, carrying water gracefully on their heads. They watch a crowd of barefoot people sift through a rubbish pile.  A camel lurches past the truck, its rider bouncing awkwardly, seeming barely in control.  Finally, they arrive at their destination, a remote village built almost entirely of mud and straw. The team immediately gets to work. They have much to get done, and the sun is already blazing hot overhead.For the next 40 minutes, Medair?s Stella Chetham and her colleagues walk around the village, using a megaphone to let people know that Medair has arrived. The seemingly empty village leaps into life. Heads pop up over grass fences, children come out to stare, and a crowd of people follow them toward a temporary clinic room.?We heard the megaphone announce that Medair was here doing vaccinations,? said Nyanyao Ajang, mother of five young children. ?I called to my neighbours: ?Let?s take our children to get vaccinated.??The EPI ProjectIn Sudan, one of every 10 children in Sudan dies before their fifth birthday. That?s one of the highest under-5 mortality rates in the world. ?One of the reasons for this,? says Dr. Simon Clausen, Medair Medical Manager, ?is that in the past they have been unable to access simple vaccinations.?In response, Medair launched an Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) project in August 2007 at its clinic in Melut, Southern Sudan. The EPI project immunises children against six preventable but deadly diseases: measles, polio, tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis, and tuberculosis.  ?What motivates me most is that I want all the children here to be protected with vaccines,? says Abyei Deng, EPI Team Leader at the Medair-assisted clinic in Melut. ?That way none of them will suffer from these major diseases and one day they can be the future of this country.?Medair also conducts regular health education with mothers to explain why the vaccinations are so important. As an extra incentive, every child who completes all three rounds of vaccinations receives a mosquito net that protects them against malaria. ?Since we?ve opened this unit, we?ve vaccinated very many children,? says Abyei Deng. ?So far, there?s been a very good effect. Diseases like measles and others are disappearing... We only see the occasional case coming from far-away villages that we haven?t yet reached.?To reach people in these distant villages, Medair also conducts EPI outreach campaigns in remote communities. Vaccination Outreach DayBy noon, the scene at the temporary vaccination site has become one of organised chaos. Mothers wait eagerly with their children, some waving their blue vaccination cards already. The tiny vaccination room fills to the brim with people all talking at once, with more people trying to push in from outside. But even as it grows stiflingly hot in the cramped room, the team works together like a well-oiled machine. Children are registered, vaccinated, and, if it is their third dose in this primary vaccination series, their mothers are given a mosquito net for them. One team member teaches the waiting mothers about the importance of completing the full course of injections. The Medair team also vaccinates pregnant women and women of childbearing age.  ?Since you came, people are very happy,? says Nyanyao Ajang, her three youngest children in tow. ?There is no clinic here where we can vaccinate our children. People sometimes have to go on a 12-hour bus journey [to get vaccinated]. And it requires so many journeys to complete the course of injections.?When it comes time for Nyanyao?s children to be vaccinated, she lifts them onto her lap. At one point, she has two in her lap, as she comforts one who has just received an injection while the Medair staff cleans the other child?s leg in preparation for the needle.?All the children cry, of course ? what child likes having a needle stuck into them?? says Stella. ?But the mothers are smiling widely, their faces plainly showing a sense of pride and understanding that this is an important step for their children?s health.?Nyanyo concurs. ?Today, three of my children completed their vaccinations, and my other two have already completed theirs. Now all of my children are vaccinated!? The Journey HomeWhen the work day concludes, the team pack themselves into their baking hot truck and start their long journey home. Everyone is exhausted; barely a word is spoken on the way back. In total, they vaccinated 77 children during the day against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, and measles. Although they feel overwhelmed, the team knows that they have done good, important work today. ?This kind of activity is making such a positive difference in this country,? reflects Stella. ?Knowing that those children will now be free from the risk of contracting these horrible diseases... that?s such a good feeling. It must also give real hope to their parents who struggle so hard to provide for them.? As the sun sinks low in the sky, the team arrives back to the base, ready for sleep and for another day to dawn in Southern Sudan.In 2010, Medair has already vaccinated more than 4,000 children in Melut County, Southern Sudan. Your donations make this life-saving work possible.Medair?s EPI project is supported by private donations, the Common Humanitarian Fund (CHF), and the Basic Services Fund of the Government of Southern Sudan (BSF).Since 1991, Medair has responded to the needs of highly vulnerable people in conflict-affected Southern Sudan?particularly women and children under five. We currently provide WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene) and health services in Upper Nile State (Melut and Manyo counties), while our emergency response teams provide rapid, life-saving aid during crises within Southern Sudan's 10 states.This web feature was produced with resources gathered by Medair field and headquarters staff. The views expressed herein are those solely of Medair and should not be taken, in any way, to reflect the official opinion of any other organisation.> More information about Medair's activities in Southern Sudan. Read More> Please donate here.