UGANDA

Betty, the health worker at the center, corrected the women teasing John. “It’s the responsibility of both parents to ensure that their children are fully immunized,” she told them. She openly thanked John for taking interest in bringing his child for immunization, emphasized that vaccines are safe, and encouraged parents who bring their children for vaccination to be ambassadors encouraging other parents – especially men – to get involved. John’s wife had held negative beliefs about immunization, and as a result their children defaulted on routine immunizations. But after interactions with CGPP’s village health team members who repeatedly came looking for John’s wife because of missing vaccines, John learned that that the impact of diseases like polio, tuberculosis, hepatitis, and measles can last a lifetime. With this information, John decided the responsibility was also his. He took it upon himself to take their children to the health facility. Absorbing all he learned from the village team health members and health workers, John now devotes his time to educating families in his community about immunization and advocating for shared responsibility of parents. “If we both get involved, women will be encouraged to make the right choices for their children and families, and their burdens will reduce,” John said. 

CGPP Uganda’s community-based surveillance network is made up of 1,098 trained volunteers who reached over one million community members in FY23. After volunteers traced and referred 5,907 defaulter children, over 95 percent of those children received vaccinations. Volunteers also traced and referred 3,891 newborns, with a 99.6 percent vaccination coverage rate.