Our community mobilizers are leaving no stone unturned in their quest to helping people to access and take the COVID-19 maklate.
Over the last two weeks, they have been to schools, health clinics, places of worship, markets and homes.
One of the community mobilizers is Vamba Kanneh, a 25-year-old youth from Kpanga Chiefdom, a remote community in Pujehun district.
Yesterday, Kanneh visited the Luma – a periodic market in Kpanga Chiefdom where business people from the nearby communities converge for trading purposes.
In a single day, through Kanneh’s one-on-one engagement with the traders and buyers, he and his team of mobilizers convinced a little over 200 people to take their own dose of the COVID-19 maklate.
“It is difficult to change people’s mindset but once they trust the messenger and the message they can adopt the message,” says Kanneh.
Like Kanneh, most of the community mobilizers are opinion leaders who are held in high esteem in their communities.
NaCOVERC and the Ministry of Health and Sanitation are racing to get 10% of Sierra Leone’s population inoculated against COVID-19 by the end of 2021.
Ensuring people are protected from COVID-19 is even more urgent as we approach the festive season when experts expect an increase in COVID-19 case numbers.
So far in Sierra Leone, more than 450,000 people have taken their first dose of the vaccine.
This week is a perfect chance to go get your own free dose of the COVID-19 maklate if you have not done so yet. You can get your maklate from a mobile vaccine team in your area, or by visiting your nearest vaccination centre.