FAME COVID-19 Vaccine Outreach Program
The FAME COVID-19 outreach team getting ready to leave for the villages.
Since receiving the COVID-19 vaccines from the Tanzanian government in October of 2021, FAME has been on the frontlines conducting COVID-19 vaccine outreach for the people and communities in our catchment area.
The FAME team has drummed up support for this program by going to local markets and businesses to give out vaccines, putting together a radio program for vaccine education, making a vaccine educational video aired at FAME reception, and giving out “I’m COVID-19 vaccinated” buttons to encourage vaccine uptake. The team has now added another activity to the outreach program, door-to-door vaccinations.
One month ago, FAME expanded our COVID-19 outreach program to include a door-to-door COVID-19 vaccination campaign. This initiative is aimed at addressing the vaccine hesitancy among underserved groups and improving vaccination rates among hard-to-reach populations.
Every day at 8am, including weekends, the FAME team sets off to the most remote parts of our catchment area. Some of these areas are more than 20 miles from FAME. When they arrive in these villages, they meet with the area chief and present a letter of permission from the District Medical Officer to conduct outreach in their village. This is a crucial part of our multi-pronged strategy to ensure community acceptance.
The FAME COVID-19 outreach team consists of a driver, one medical recorder, five nurses, and one social worker. They are working to increase trust in the COVID-19 vaccine, provide access to the vaccine and vaccine boosters and deliver education about COVID-19, including how it is transmitted and how to keep children safe.
Vaccinating one of the villagers.
FAME’s COVID-19 vaccination outreach coordinator, Siana, gives last minute instructions to FAME driver, Omari.
FAME’s Social Worker, Kitashu Nganana leaving for the outreach.
Siana Nkya, FAME’s COVID-19 vaccination outreach coordinator, explains:
“I have a team of eight FAME employees who volunteer for this outreach on their days off. Since the outreach is done on their days off, it does not affect the quality of their work at the hospital. I am so grateful to them for giving up their free time to do this. Without them, we wouldn’t be able to reach these villages that would otherwise not have access to the vaccine.”
At the villages, FAME’s Social Worker, Kitashu, translates from Maa to Swahili for the team, and in cases where the household speaks a different language, they enlist the help of neighbors to translate.
However, this has not been without challenges. The team encounters a lot of misinformation, which leads to vaccine hesitancy.
“On top of the vaccines, we are providing COVID-19 education to these groups. We have encountered misinformation that we try to correct. For Instance, we have met many women who refuse to get the COVID-19 vaccine because they’re afraid it will make them infertile.”
When the team is met with misinformation, they spend time sitting with the people to share the facts, in this case that theCenter for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has long stated that there is no evidence that any vaccines, including COVID-19 vaccines, cause fertility problems in women or men.
Sometimes, the villagers will ask the team if they’ve been vaccinated before. Noting that 98% of FAME staff is vaccinated against COVID-19, the team explains that they have received the COVID-19 vaccination, which creates a trusting relationship with the community members. Oftentimes, the villagers will seek repeated confirmations that the vaccine is free, and that they will not be charged afterwards.
“The case that sticks with me is the case of the woman who suffered from TB, thus making her more susceptible to catching the coronavirus. We talked to her and answered her questions, and slowly by slowly we could see that she understood the facts presented, and she accepted to receive the vaccine.” -Kitashu Nganana
Since FAME started the COVID-19 vaccination program in October 2021, we have vaccinated 456 people, at the hospital and in the field. This includes 305 individuals from the door-to-door vaccination outreach activity, and 34 booster shots. In the beginning of the door-to-door vaccination drive, the team would vaccinate four people a day, sometimes even less. Slowly, these numbers started to pick up and in two weeks, they had vaccinated 86 people. We can now say that the door-to-door vaccination efforts have yielded the most vaccines administered since the start of FAME’s COVID-19 outreach program.
FAME’s Pharmacy team model their “I am COVID-19 vaccinated” buttons