By Petro Mkandawire
Blantyre, February 14, Mana: Malawi Health Equity Network (MHEN) monitors and trains Chimembe Mother Care Group (MCG) on the group’s capacity for under-five vaccine awareness.
MEHN Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, Florence Khonyongwa, told Malawi News Agency (Mana) at Chimembe Health Center in Blantyre, Thursday that the visit to Chimembe was to identify problems and challenges the MCG faces as it raises awareness on child vaccine.
“We are satisfied with the way mother care groups are performing. However, there is a need for improvement, especially in advocacy,
“The group needs to find other channels in raising awareness so that the immunization process should yield better results,” said Khonyongwa.
According to Khonyongwa, the supervisory tour helped to re-energise and motivate group members and enhance collaboration and coordination with healthcare providers apart from providing mothers and caregivers accurate information about vaccine and immunization schedules.
“Monitoring mother care groups helps to strengthen vaccine and immunization programmes and reduce the risk of outbreaks among under-five children, Monitoring visits also help us to track vaccination coverage and identify areas where coverage is low,” she added.
The Chimembe Mother Care Group, established in 2019 comprises 30 members and currently collaborates with three public health posts to raise awareness on child vaccines and other health-related initiatives.
Chairperson for Chimembe Mother CGG, Joyce Harry said the care group has been successful in reaching out to 500 families every month, with an 89 per cent community participation rate in their vaccination initiative.
“The care group's advocacy has led to a significant change in behaviour, with more men now taking active roles in vaccinating their children. This marks a positive shift from previous times when they were reluctant to get involved,” added Harry.
Apart from Blantyre, MHEN is implementing a child vaccine campaign in nine districts namely, Mchinji, Ntchisi, Kasungu, Dowa, Mzimba south, Mzimba north, Chitipa and Lilongwe with financial support from the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI).
MHN is yet to continue monitoring other health facilities in Blantyre.
