Women and children in Machinga will soon have improved access to life-saving vaccines, thanks to a K77 million initiative that Amref Health Africa is implementing in the district.
The initiative seeks to reach over 7 000 under-five children, 1 050 pregnant women and 1 050 adolescent girls with vaccines for tetanus and cervical cancer. The organisation will provide the vaccines through five health facilities in the district
Speaking on Saturday during the launch at Machinga District Hospital, Amref Health Africa project coordinator Rodrick Mwakula said they seek to build capacity among healthcare workers such as nurses, clinicians, health surveillance assistants and village health committee volunteers to improve service delivery and outreach.
He said: “Clinicians and nurses will be trained on managing adverse effects following immunisation as most of them have limited knowledge in this area because our previous partners were not equipped to train them all. So this project has come to fill those gaps. The same applies to health surveillance assistants to ensure no child or woman is left behind.”
Machinga District Hospital expanded programme on immunisation coordinator Frezar Galeta described the project as a timely intervention.
He said the district’s vaccination programme has suffered from funding shortfalls.
“We are optimistic that this support will ensure consistent vaccine supply and reduce stock-outs in our facilities. Previously, the United States Agency for International Development used to fund us but now we rely on Other Recurrent Transaction, which sometimes comes late and affects the timely distribution of vaccines,” said Galeta.
He said the district boasts a strong vaccine uptake record, having ranked top nationally during the Covid-19 vaccination campaign.
Traditional Authority Mchinguza pledged his support to the project, saying he will help dispel myths and misconceptions about vaccines.
