At Makawa Primary School in Mangochi District, more than 5000 children fill classrooms each day.
However, March 24 2026 is not an ordinary Monday for the learners. It marked the first day in Malawi’s nationwide polio vaccination campaign.
This was the first round of the emergency immunisation campaign following the discovery of poliovirus in an unvaccinated child and two sewage treatment sites in Blantyre City.
By 10 am, over 1 600 children had already received the polio vaccine and some were still queuing for the oral shot.
The numbers tell a tale of trust, coordination and a shared commitment to protect every child from the disease that does not only paralyse limbs and other parts but also causes death.
For Koche Community Hospital health surveillance assistant Angela Kasekani, this moment was the result of careful, community-driven work.
“Vaccination is the best way to keep children safe,” she says. “Before every child is vaccinated, we sensitise the community, through leaders and conversations.”
It is this collaboration among parents, teachers and health workers that truly protects children, says the community health worker.
She describes a system built on shared roles and mutual trust: “Health workers bring knowledge, explaining what polio is, how it spreads and how vaccines work.
“Parents hold the power to decide, to say yes to protection.
“Teachers, meanwhile, become the bridge opening access, sharing information, and linking families to services.”
The said collaboration came to life inside a crowded classroom at the rural school along the baobab-adorned southern shoreline of Lake Malawi.
Standard Two teacher Shamim Bwanali was on her toes, ensuring all 152 learners in her class received the oral vaccine to avoid catching the resurgent poliovirus that scientists have traced to a case in Zimbabwe.
“I engaged all parents and warned them about the dangers of the polio disease. I told them that polio causes paralysis and that vaccination is the only protection. They were all forthcoming and gave consent for their wards to receive the vaccine,” she says.
Her class constitutes a small but powerful example of what is possible when information spreads across a community, building public trust in proven solutions to the prevailing public health crises.
Similar scenes unfolded across Malawi, where health workers travelled tirelessly, going door to door, visiting markets and pitching at schools to leave no child unvaccinated.
The vaccination teams, who appeared determined to ensure no child is left behind, have become trusted foot soldiers in the war against the return of polio.
They leapt back to the front last week when the Ministry of Health and Sanitation alongside partners such as the World Health Organisation, embarked on the second round of the nationwide polio vaccination campaign.
Alongside the frontline health workers, teachers play a vital role mobilising parents, sharing trusted information, organising learners and turning classrooms into safe spaces for access to vaccination.
Their inroads deepen a shared purpose, bridging the gap between families and health services, ensuring consent is understood and every child is protected from the virus, which spreads through stools from infected persons.
The Ministry of Health and Sanitation declared an outbreak after detecting poliovirus type 2 in stools from two sewage plants and a seven-year-old unvaccinated child admitted to a hospital in Blantyre.
“The ministry continues to implement several strategies to control further spread of the poliovirus. The first strategy is conducting polio vaccination campaigns, which target all children aged below 10 years regardless of their initial vaccination status,” says Bestone Chisamile, principal secretary responsible for administration in the ministry.
The ministry reports that by the end of the first round, the teams vaccinated over 6.2 million children. The coverage represents an extraordinary 103 percent of the target population.
Following last weeks’ campaign, the third round is planned for June this year.
Behind every number is a child, vaccinated and protected from polio.
This testifies to the power of strong partnerships, especially what is possible when communities, opinion leaders and health workers unite and walk as one to safeguard every child.
Additional reporting by Ovixlexla Bunya.
