Support Covid-19 vaccine programme in rural Kenya

When COVID-19 struck in Kenya, the greatest challenge was storage of vaccines and how the vaccines will reach the communities in the interior parts since some parts of Kericho County are hard to reach. Brighter Communities in partnership with the Ministry of Health distributed fridges and cooler boxes to health facilities to help in the storage of vaccines and help the vaccine reach the inaccessible parts of the county since the cooler boxes are portable and easy to move around with.

In the last 12 months Brighter Communities Worldwide together with our partners at Ministry of Health and the County Government of Kericho managed to distribute 18 fridges and 16 Cooler Boxes which will aid storage of vaccines until it is administered maintaining its potency. (Cold Chain management).

In the recent months, there has been change of focus by the Ministry of Health from administering COVID-19 Vaccines to administering HPV Vaccines. Administration of COVID-19 vaccines has been incorporated with regular services available at health clinics and monthly outreach clinics.  The Ministry is now focusing on administration of HPV vaccines. The target population is teenage girls aged 10-14 years. These vaccines protect against at least HPV type 16 and 18 which causes the high risk of cervical cancer.

Across the county the total number of HPV vaccines given is – 15,168 HPV1 vaccine and 10,526 HPV2 between January and June. By July 2023, 1,310 COVID-19 vaccine posters were distributed to the communities through our activities and trainings and over 2,000 cervical cancer information posters distributed to the communities and health facilities across Kericho County.

The fridges, cooler boxes, training for health care workers, resources for health facilities provided in support of the COVID-19 vaccine are transferrable to all vaccination programmes.  This means the childhood and the HPV campaigns will benefit for many years to come.

Community Health Volunteers (CHVs) are continuing to sensitise the community on hand washing and other preventive measures against the spread of COVID-19.  These CHVs are assisting the community to improvise some of their facilities in particular for handwashing. Communities are learning how to cope up with challenge of COVID-19 and maintaining all the measures that they were taught. Hand washing also has assisted in reduction of other diseases like diarrhoea in the communities.

COVID-19 has not gone away and is still a subject to be highlighted by Brighter Communities Worldwide in the communities where we work.   We do this by incorporating information about the virus across all our programmes and using posters at trainings, events and activities to promote measures to prevent transmission.  We also emphasize information about the purpose and availability of the vaccine.  When the communities have knowledge and understand more about COVID-19 vaccine, this transfers to all vaccines available to them including childhood vaccinations and the recent HPV vaccine campaign and increases the uptake.

Thank you for you donations to this project supporting the roll out of the COVID-19 vaccine in rural Kenya.  This report was written on the same day as the Director General of the World Health Organisation, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, declared that COVID-19 is over as a global health emergency but this does not mean it is over as a global health threat.  He says this is a moment for celebration but also a time for reflection.

With your help, since the first case of COVID-19 turned our world upside down, we have -

• Reached 854,334 people with handwashing buckets & soap and information about COVID-19 prevention, treatment and vaccination.
• Trained 3,627 Community Health Volunteer about COVID-19 to enable them to share information in their communities.
• Trained 777 Health Care workers about COVID-19 and what measure to take to protect themselves and their community.
• Enabled 1,754 students to attend ‘remote learning’ while schools were in lockdown.
• Provided 61 health facilities with PPE to protect health care workers.
• Supported Londiani Sub-County Hospital and Ndubusat Clinic to set up isolation wards.
• Constructed a vaccination centre at Londiani Sub-County Hospital.
• Provided vaccine coolers to 45 health facilities serving a population of 212,167.
• Provided vaccine fridges to 23 health facilities reaching 91,107 people.
• Supported 508,980 people in receiving the COVID-19 vaccines

Dr. Tedros says ‘COVID-19 has left and continues to leave, deep scars on our world . The worst thing any country could do now is to let down its guard, to dismantle the systems it has built, or to send the message to its people that COVID-19 is nothing to worry about”.

Brighter Communities Worldwide continue to support the roll out of the COVID-19 vaccination to make sure that no one is left behind and to strengthen health systems that have been stretched beyond their limits.  The vaccination fridges and cooler boxes are part of the COVID-19 response and also support outreach clinics bringing lifesaving immunisation programmes for children.  The training and support for health care workers strengthens their ability to manage other infectious diseases as well as COVID-19. 

Dr. Tedros states that COVID-19 has been much more than a health crisis – in the communities where we work, we are deeply aware of the many families living in poverty, the teenage pregnancies and young mothers, the young men and women who have fallen out of education through school closures, unprecedented levels of unemployment and poverty.  “The poorest and most vulnerable communities are the hardest hit and the last to receive access to vaccines and other tools”.  Dr. Tedros.

No one is safe until everyone is safe.

Thank you for donating to this project which is part of our emergency response to the COVID-19 pandemic.  Your donations are helping to provide - training for Health Care Workers about the COVID-19 vaccination programme; information and communication materials for Community Health Volunteers to share in their communities and equipment and materials for health facilities to store and administer the vaccine.  For example - providing equipment such as Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) - gloves, masks and hand sanitiser, vaccine fridges to store the vaccines and cooler boxes for transporting the vaccines to remote communities.

Vaccines continue to be distributed and administered and as of December 16^th the rate of fully vaccinated adults has increased to 36.9% across Kenya according to the Ministry of Health figures.  In Kericho County, where we work, the rate is 34.3% - that is 174,335 adults (over 18 years) out of a target population of 508,980.  Vaccinations are also available to children aged between 12 and 18 years and in Kericho 10.8% of  the target population of 160,761 are fully vaccinated. 

Since January 2022, we have provided 25 health facilities (with a catchment population of 74,848) with vaccine cooler boxes to enable the safe transportation of vaccines, and 10 health facilities (with a catchment population of 37,489)  with vaccine fridges to enable the safe storage of vaccines.  Your support of this project has helped to make this happen.

Strengthening of health facilities is also supporting the routine childhood vaccination programme and on November 10^th Jagoror Dispensary marked World Immunisation Day when 57 mothers brought their babies for immunisation, 65 school children also came for their HPV vaccine and a total of 101 boys and girls received the COVID-19 vaccine.

In Kericho County, many people live in hard to reach areas with poor roads, rough terrain and no public transport.  Bringing the COVID-19 vaccine to the people is vital to reduce community transmission and keep everyone safe and healthy.  We do this working in partnership with the Ministry of Health, by bringing outreach clinics to communities setting up at markets, churches and schools.  Your donation providing PPE, training, equipment and materials is helping to make this happen.  Thank you!

Please feel welcome to share this report with a friend and tell them why you support this project.  The need is still great and every single donation makes a difference.

Thank you for your support.

Thank you for donating to this project supporting the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine.  Since our last report in May, the rate of fully vaccinated adults has increased to 35% across Kenya and in Kericho county, it stands at 33%.  The ability and confidence of the health care workers to administer the vaccine is increasing through training and provision of PPE.  Households are receiving information and growing in awareness of the need for the vaccine through regular visits from Community Health Volunteers and there is greater access to the vaccine in Kenya as the months go by.  Between April and July 22,244 people in Kericho county were fully vaccinated.

With your help, the project continues to focus on training and sensitisation of Health Care workers on all elements of the vaccine programme; preparing health facilities by providing vaccination fridges, vaccine carriers, PPE, IT support and information posters & banner and training Community Health Volunteers to raise awareness and understanding in the community about the vaccine.

To increase the distribution and uptake of COVID-19 vaccine, all health facilities across the County are needed to administer the vaccine. Unfortunately, most of these facilities lack equipment to deliver these services.  Where a health facility cannot store the vaccine, the staff of that centre have to travel to another health centre to collect vaccines on a daily basis.  This mean that while they are travelling the health facility is closed and day to day health services cannot be delivered.  Providing health facilities with vaccination fridges allows them to store the COVID-19 vaccine as well as others such as those for children under five years of age.  The health needs of the community are not impacted by closures and Health Care Workers can get on with their job of looking after the community.

This project is helping to support a number of health facilities to act as vaccine provision sites.  With their storage facilities and through a mobile outreach system and health care workers who set up outreach clinics, vaccination services are provided to remote clinics and communities.  Vaccine cooler boxes for transport, IT support with tablets for keeping records and personal protective equipment are part of the outreach system.

Community Health Volunteers are part of Kenya’s Community Health Strategy, acting as a link between the households and health facility in a community.  They act as key agents in sensitising community members on the importance of the COVID-19 vaccine.  To help these volunteers in their role,  we support their training and provide communications materials – posters and banners.  

‘’Great thanks to Brighter Communities Worldwide for your support and sacrifice. Your support helps further our mission to provide healthcare services to the community’’; Dr Collins Kirui, Sub County Medical Officer of Health, Belgut Sub County, Kericho County.

There is much more to be done to make sure we leave no one behind.  Next week, donations up to €50 will be matched at 50% by the GlobalGiving Little by Little campaign.  Please share this report with a friend, share with them why you support this project and let them know about the matching fund.  The need is still great and every single donation makes a difference.

Thank you for your support.

Thank you so much for supporting our programme to help with the roll out of the COVID-19 vaccine programme in Kericho county where we work. Thanks to your donations, this programme is providing vital support.

The latest update is that the number of fully vaccinated adults in Kericho county is at 28.2% (target population over 18 years of age is 508,980).   Progress continues to be hampered by logistics and distribution challenges.

Every day we are getting requests for Personal Protection Equipment (PPE).  Photographs here show a distribution to the Londiani Sub-County Hospital in February.  The hospital was in crisis as their supplies were finished and no further supplies were available which put services provided by the hospital at risk.  This hospital provides outpatient and inpatient care, medical and surgical emergency response, maternal and child health clinics, HIV/AIDS care centre, paediatrics and obstetrics/gynaecology.  Without these services lives are at risk – the next closest hospital is 50km distance which without access to transport may as well be 500km.  Unfortunately, this situation is not an isolated case.

Training for 36 health care workers in Infection Prevention and Control across health facilities took place since our last update.   This training includes identifying, isolating and caring for patients, contract tracing, home based care and administration of the COVID-19 vaccination. These health care workers continue to bring the vaccine to the furthest parts of the county through outreach clinics and your donations support all of this work. 

We have supported 26 Outreach clinics exclusively for COVID-19 vaccinations since November and at those clinics 511 people have received 1^st dose; 529 2^nd dose and 13 people received booster shots. 

Since the opening of the Vaccine centre at Londiani Sub-County Hospital in December, the hospital staff have given out 23,710 vaccinations in total.

The government has lifted the mandatory wearing of masks which has led to assumptions in the community that ‘COVID-19 is no longer with us’.  We continue to raise awareness of the virus and the vaccination at all our programme events using posters and banners to ensure that even the most remote communities know the vaccine is available to them and the threat to their health is not gone away.

Please share this report among your circles – COVID-19 is far from over in Kenya and with high transmission rates, the threat of a new and more dangerous variant remains real.