From Isolation to Inspiration: Kusowa’s Journey to Championing COVID-19 Vaccination in Malawi

“In 2020, I was very sick, tested positive for COVID-19 and was quarantined at the Emergency Treatment Unit (ETU) for four weeks.  I witnessed people dying and their bodies carried away by health workers, and I thought I would be the next. Sometime after I got discharged, it was disheartening to realise that my community continued to isolate me for fear of getting infected,” Noel recalled. This fear escalated when rumours spread in his community that receiving the COVID-19 vaccine would turn him into a zombie.

Despite these challenges, Noel’s painful experience and survival fueled his determination to speak out about the COVID-19 vaccine. In 2023, the Amref-led Vaccination Action Network (VAN) project, funded by The Rockefeller Foundation and implemented by Self-Help Africa (SHA), recognised Noel as a trusted and influential community member. He was trained alongside 200 others as a vaccine champion.

Leveraging the project’s strategy to use sports to mobilise young people, Noel became a popular advocate of the COVID-19 vaccine amongst his peers. “In addition to organising sporting events, I go door to door encouraging others and link them with community health workers to provide vaccines to those who are willing”, Noel explained.

Despite initial resistance due to widespread misconceptions about vaccines, Noel’s efforts led to 202 people receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, including his peers, siblings and parents.

The VAN project in Dedza district aimed to increase demand for vaccination, targeting ten health facilities, including Dedza District Hospital. The project, implemented jointly with the Ministry of Health, was designed to address the low vaccine coverage in the district. Before this project, only 21.4% of the targeted population (587,854) had received at least one dose of the vaccine with 12.8% being fully immunised.  To date, 27% of the target population has received at least one dose and 19% is fully immunised.

‘’The project used a community-led approach to create demand for vaccines. This involved engaging influential and local leaders to advocate for the vaccine and using the media, including local radio stations, to dispel myths and misconceptions. The project has trained 216 community health workers, and 200 vaccine champions and supported facilities in vaccine awareness and delivery. A total of 15,700 COVID-19 doses have been administered to date through the project’s interventions,’’ said Munthali, a project coordinator.

Dina Chapuma, a Senior Health Surveillance Assistant based at Bembeke Health Center in Dedza, described the VAN project approach as a game changer in vaccine uptake. “In the past, community response to vaccine uptake was very slow, and, in some instances, health workers were chased away during the campaigns.  The collaboration of vaccine champions, local leadership and health workers has contributed to a gradual community understanding and acceptance of the vaccines’’ she commented.

The VAN project has also the supported integration of the COVID-19 vaccine into routine services, including Antenatal Care (ANC), Postnatal Care (PNC) and Youth-Friendly Health Services (YFHS). The project has significantly contributed to the 8 million doses of vaccines administered in Malawi since the outbreak of the disease in April 2020.

Story by Gift Munthali, Self Help Africa