PANGAEA Zimbabwe AIDS Trust (PZAT), has appointed a 15 member team drawn from various sectors to be COVID-19 Prevention champions in their different communities in a bid to promote vaccine literacy and advocate for the uptake of COVID-19 vaccines in communities.
By Michael Gwarisa
The move comes in the midst of findings from a recent COVID-19 Rapid Assessment that was conducted by PZAT in collaboration with Ministry of Health and Child Care, which indicated that vaccine hesitancy and lack of trust in vaccines being administered in Zimbabwe were the major reasons behind the low uptake of COVID-19 vaccines in Zimbabwe.
To date, a total 6 284 090 have received the first dose of the COVID-19 while 4 633 017 have had their second jab. 874 382 had received the booster dose according the Zimbabwe Covid-19 situation report of 29 June 2022. These figures are against a missed herd immunity target of fully vaccinating 10 million people that was earmarked for December 2021.
Speaking during the induction training of the Champions, PZAT Project Coordinator, Gwendoline Chapwanya said appointing COVID-19 Prevention Champions from within the communities has its advantages as they possess the goodwill which makes it easier for communities to relate and believe the information they share.
Our major objective is to instil vaccine confidence among people within our communities. We want people to understand and have adequate and correct information about the vaccines. We also intend to demystify some of the myths and misinformation around vaccines so as to boost people’s trust of these vaccines. By instilling confidence and trust, we stand a chance as a nation to have more people coming forward to get vaccinated,” said Chapwanya.
The COVID-19 Prevention Champions are drawn from various sectors who already have a footprint in community health advocacy work and these include media, community facilitators, Pre-Exposure Prophylaxes (PrEP) ambassadors from Mazowe, Community Facilitators from Harare and Chitungwiza City Health Promoters.
“We need to understand and respond to vaccination needs. Most of the champions here have work that they are already doing in the communities but we are now adding this layer of vaccines to their already existing work. Vaccine Champions need to understand the knowledge levels of communities and see if people have adequate information around COVID-19 and Covid-19 vaccines. Once we know what it is that’s happening in the communities, we then can be able to respond to this vaccine hesitancy.”
She added that the champions need to documents findings from their work in communities as that evidence would influence how vaccines for other diseases will be rolled out in the future. World scientists are currently working of developing vaccines for HIV, Malaria, cancer among others.
The appointed vaccines champions will be meeting monthly for feedback meetings and every Champion will be required to write a report of what they would have encountered in their line of work during the course of the month. On the first day of training, Nyaradzo Mandizvidza from the Ministry of Health and Child Care , Health Promotions Unit presented on “A Global Perspective and focus on Zimbabwe.
Dr Joseph Murungu from Pangaea Zimbabwe AIDS Trust took the champions through the basics of vaccines development and vaccine technology so as to equip them with the basic knowledge around vaccines with aim of improving their understanding of the subject.
