Three members of a mobile health team on the side of a highway where the vaccinator on the team administers a COVID-19 shot to a migrant.

ETHIOPIA

Seven kilometers from the Dewele Health Center where she works, 28-year-old Mahlet Cheru sits at a plain red metal table under a green tarp stretched across six skinny metal poles using a taped-up pen to log the last child’s name for the day’s vaccinations at Gilile Legal Crossing Point between Ethiopia and Djibouti in Ayesha Woreda. It’s nearing 9 a.m. and the 90-degree heat continues to rise as Mahlet and her coworker Redwane Puin, 26, situate their papers and sit in plastic chairs to answer questions for an interview. Three hours ago, the two health workers arrived to set up the vaccination site as they do five days a week: pull out the table and chairs from the truck, unload the syringes, immunization cards, daily logs and the 2-liter insulated cold box. About every three months, the tarp will need to be replaced due to strong winds and extreme heat.

This vaccination site is the most luxurious of the 14 currently functioning that CGPP Ethiopia support. The project hopes to help establish 23 more so that all 37 formal/legal crossing points offer routine immunizations for children 15 and under with the ultimate goal of interrupting transmissions of transboundary infections and reducing the cases of zero-dose children.

Since 2001, CGPP Ethiopia has been reaching underserved rural, pastoralist, and semi-pastoralist cross border and hard-to-reach areas to facilitate opportunities to vaccinate and conduct case search to maintain quality surveillance for vaccine-preventable and priority zoonotic diseases. CGPP focuses on preventing polio and other diseases through assistance to large-scale vaccination campaigns, strengthening immunization systems, and community-based surveillance. Community volunteers, health development army leaders, and health extension workers actively search and report cases of AFP, measles, and neonatal tetanus and track mothers from early pregnancy. The cadre of 10,000+ volunteers regularly conduct house-to-house health education sessions and social mobilization activities during routine and supplementary immunization campaigns. The project integrates COVID-19 awareness and community-based surveillance for priority zoonotic diseases such as rabies, anthrax, and brucellosis, to strengthen global health security.

Secretariat Host Organization

Consortium of Christian Relief and Development Associations (CCRDA)

Implementing Partners

CGPP South Sudan works through four localized community-based NGOs: Pastoralist Concern, Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus, and Organization for Welfare and Development in Action as well as five international NGOs: Save the Children International, World Vision International, International Rescue Committee, Amref Health Africa, and Catholic Relief Services through the local partners Bahir Dar-Dessie Catholic Secretariat and Harerghe Catholic Secretariat.