Women under Kamchere Mother Care Group in Traditional Authority Gumba in Mchinji District have expressed satisfaction with immunisation coverage among under-five children in the area.
Located 10 kilometres (km) from Gumba Health Centre, mothers and pregnant women from Kamchere Village and surrounding areas struggled to access under-five and antenatal services.
However, the mother care group, established in 2018 by Malawi Health Equity Network, lobbied for the construction of a house for a health surveillance assistant in 2025 to provide under-five services nearby.
To ensure that healthcare workers do not travel 10km to get vaccines from Gumba Health Centre to administer in the area, the women lobbied for the installation of a cold room in the house to store vaccines.
Kamchere Mother Care Group chairperson Christina Chimwala said the health worker lived far from the village, making it difficult to provide consistent outreach clinics and immunisation services.
She said: “As a result, some children missed important vaccines due to irregular visits and long walking distances to health facilities.
“The situation exposed many children to preventable diseases such as measles, polio, pneumonia and whooping cough.”
Chimwala said besides facilitating the construction of the house, the women also lobbied for the construction of a health post, whose works are underway.
But Chimwala and her group also conduct door-to-door awareness campaigns, organise village health talks and work closely with health workers to identify children who have defaulted immunisation programmes.
Village head Maliseni Nkhata described the women as champions of children’s health.
“These women have sacrificed their time to ensure that children in our villages receive vaccines. Their work has helped parents understand that immunisation is not dangerous but necessary for every child,” he said.
Sofia Gabriel Malason, a mother whose child recently completed full immunisation schedule, said the group helped her overcome fears and misconceptions she previously had about vaccines.
