Vaccine literacy campaign launched

VACCINE education and literacy have been identified as an important focus area in building confidence and trust as South Africa rolls out Covid19 vaccines across the country.

With a view to bringing an innovative solution to addressing this, while giving young people an opportunity to contribute to their communities, the Solidarity Fund and National House of Traditional and Khoi-San Leaders (NHTKL) have entered into a partnership.

This has allowed more than 200 young people in five provinces – KZN, Eastern Cape, North West, Limpopo and Mpumalanga – to embark on a rural-focused door-todoor campaign, engaging with community members about maintaining preventative behaviours and having meaningful conversations on vaccinations, while also assisting with the registration of people over 60.

The foot soldiers, who have visited and engaged with just more than 21 000 households in the selected provinces since the start of the drive last month, were tasked with reiterating the Covid-19 safety protocols.

While South Africa reached the milestone of vaccinating more than 1.7 million people on June 1, the government has reported that registrations to receive vaccines through the Electronic Vaccination Data System have been slower than expected.

This campaign is aimed at addressing the concerns of people about the vaccine roll-out to encourage greater uptake.

Solidarity Fund’s humanitarian response and behaviour change pillars executive head, Wendy Tlou, said: “Vaccinations against Covid-19 have been shown to protect people from serious illness and death. It is also an important mitigating measure against the rampant spread of the virus and will allow the economy, and our borders, to stay open.

“This will allow various sectors that can contribute to the country’s economic stability and employment to begin their recovery from the first year of Covid-19, which was characterised by various stages of lockdown restrictions.

“Vaccinations can also contribute to the development of population immunity against Covid-19, which will also be a positive step towards bringing the pandemic under control. ” Tlou said.

NHTKL’s deputy chairperson, who is currently the acting chairperson, Nkosikazi Mhlauli, said: “The partnership with the Solidarity Fund allows the young people who are working on this campaign to provide information to people, to empower them to make informed choices about vaccination. Tto encourage registration on the EVDS, young people … have been enabled to assist those who are 60 and above … and will also be able to demystify the issue of vaccines in local languages while being culturally sensitive.”