By Moses Nyirenda

Lilongwe, June 30, Mana: District Environmental Health Officer (DEHO) for Lilongwe, Paul Chunga said community based Mother Care Groups (MCGs) are playing a critical role in assisting the work of providing vaccination to children in the country.

Speaking on the sidelines of the ongoing refresher trainings for MCGs which Malawi Equity Health Network (MEHN) is conducting in nine districts in the country, he said the MCGs are supporting health workers to successfully provide immunization to the children.

“The MCGs are assisting the community based health workers to reach each and every child as they live within the communities and are always in contact with the mothers that have children that are eligible for immunization.

“Additionally, it is easy for them to identify a child that did not receive immunization or has missed under-five scheduled static outreach clinic and they make a follow up as well as reminding the mothers to take their children for immunization,” he noted.

Chunga added that vaccine uptake for children has improved with 95 percent in all the areas in Lilongwe District where the MCGs are supporting the vaccination work after being empowered by MEHN.

Secretary for one of the Lilongwe based MCGs known as Kakoma, Elinati Chikumbutso said with the skills and knowledge which they have gained they are able to make door to door visits in their community to encourage mothers to get their children vaccinated.

She said as MCG they are able to lobby for resources needed for vaccination from relevant authorities in order to enhance the vaccination work.

MEHN Assistant Project Officer, Tumpale Kalobo said that with their initiative among other things they want to support government in reducing child mortality rate in the country.

“We want the MCGs to assist in the immunization of children as we understand that community based health workers cannon manage to reach out each and every child on their own for vaccination.

“By the end of everything we want to make sure that the death rate of children under the age of five is reduced in the country,” she said.

With financial support from Global Alliance for vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), MEHN is supporting and empowering the MCGs with knowledge and skills in order for them to take part in the vaccination of under five children as well as other children that are eligible for vaccination.

Currently, the organization is working with 281 MCGs in nine districts in the country which include; Lilongwe, Karonga, Chitipa, Mzimba North and South, Kasungu, Mchinji and Ntchisi just to mention some.