Amref: Describe how AMIU students have been supporting COVID-19 vaccine outreach clinics in Kibera, an informal settlement within Nairobi in Kenya.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
Ann:<\/b> \u201cWe had the first COVID-19 vaccine outreach clinic in Kibera on December 4, 2021, in partnership with the Kenya Ministry of Health and the Nairobi Metropolitan Services. The day before the clinic, our students, together with community health workers, visited community members in their homes, their small scale businesses, their social places like restaurants, and talked to them about the importance of getting a COVID-19 vaccine. We let everyone know that AMIU would be having an outreach clinic the following day; all they needed to do was show up. We held the clinic on a Saturday when most people would not be working or going to school.<\/p>\n
We chose to integrate COVID-19 vaccination services with other health care services, such as blood sugar and blood pressure screening, because COVID-19 does not exist in isolation. Other health challenges, especially non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and heart disease, affect our people as well. All these health services were offered by the Amref International University students in tents set up outside the Amref Kibera Health Centre.<\/p>\n
During our engagement with the community members, the students helped to demystify myths and misconceptions about COVID-19 vaccines. Many of the community members were receptive because they received information at a personal level in a language they understand broken down in the simplest way possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Amref: What have some successes been of the COVID-19 vaccine outreach clinics in Kibera?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
Ann: <\/b>\u201cDuring that very first outreach clinic, we vaccinated 352 people against COVID-19, screened 165 people for blood sugar, 205 people for high blood pressure, and 189 received physiotherapy services. All in just a few hours on a rainy day! More than 100 Amref International University students took part in the clinic. All of the health services provided were free of charge. The Global CEO of Amref Health Africa, Dr. Githinji Gitahi, was there to support the students and community members. The clinic was so successful, we held two more in January and plan to continue them for some time.<\/p>\n
The other success is that AMIU students are able to get competency-based training that is beyond the classroom. They get an opportunity to experience real service to the people, practice desired attributes and other competencies nurtured in the classroom, as well as deepen their knowledge on socio-economic determinants of health.<\/p>\n
One of the most important successes is busting the myth that Africa and Kenya are dealing with vaccine hesitancy. The real issue is not hesitancy and it was very clear that the real issue is access. We have this assumption that because the vaccine is available in the health facilities and in hospitals then there is access. That is not enough. We must take this vaccination to the people, to the community and be able to answer their questions, be able to allay their fears\u2026not to sit back and say \u2018OK we have the shots in the hospital; that is access.\u2019 That is not enough. Information is a key pillar when it comes to access.<\/p>\n
In Africa, we have a population where health needs are competing with other needs \u2013 for example, food and shelter \u2013and, therefore, if someone has to get up in the morning to go to work they will not go get a COVID-19 vaccine if they are not feeling sick. For them, it is not a priority; they would rather go to work to be able to make some money to pay for food and school fees. That is why it is important to take these services from the facility to the community. So, when a woman is going to the shop to buy some milk she can come by the vaccine clinic and get vaccinated. It only takes a few minutes. When a man is walking to work or coming home and he sees us there in the community and we have our vaccine tent there, he will come in and get his vaccination. We have to change strategy as a continent and as a country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Amref: What have been some challenges of the COVID-19 vaccine outreach clinics in Kibera?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
Ann:<\/b> \u201cWhen members of the community get very severe side-effects from the first dose, they may get discouraged from getting the second dose. Another challenge is that some people can\u2019t remember which brand of vaccine they got for their first dose, and as a country [Kenya] we are giving the same brand of vaccine for first and second doses. When they don\u2019t remember, we have to try to get a Ministry of Health official who can access the system to find out what they got, or to advise us what to do. In Kenya, in particular, you have to register in the Ministry of Health portal so that you get vaccinated. Some of our community members are not technically savvy so they cannot navigate through the website and do the registration. That can discourage people. So, when we are running the vaccination drive we have AMIU students whose job specifically is to help people register on the portal. We cannot fail to talk about the financial aspect. The vaccination outreach requires funds. We are very grateful for the support we received from the Amref global CEO\u2019s office because now we are able to do more vaccinations drives.\u201d<\/p>\n
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<\/span><\/div>Amref: As a student, what have you learned through the COVID-19 vaccine outreach clinics in Kibera that you can use for your future career?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
Ann:<\/b> \u201cLet me share my own lesson as a student. When you go to the field and you interact with people at that level, it changes you. You can see you are dealing with human beings who have real challenges. You can see that people want to get vaccinated but they don\u2019t know how to register on the portal. You can see someone who wants to honestly and sincerely get their second shot but they don\u2019t know the brand of their first shot. The strategies we develop must be about the people. The most important thing I\u2019ve learned as we\u2019ve done these vaccination clinics is that at the centre of everything we do in health care are the people. The strategies, the interventions, the programs, the products and services we are developing are for the people. It doesn\u2019t matter how good a strategy may look on paper, if it is not delivering the outcomes that we expect, then it is not good enough. You lose sight of the people and you miss it all. That is the biggest lesson I\u2019ve learned as we\u2019ve done these vaccination outreaches.\u201d<\/p>\n
Amref: What are you most proud of in your role at Chair, AMIU Student Council?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
Ann: <\/b>\u201cI am glad I ran for this position. When we were doing the first vaccination drive in December [2021], it was raining like crazy in Nairobi. Africa has mud. I\u2019m not sure if you\u2019ve experienced the mud. We were going to an informal settlement where the mud is even worse. That morning, a part of me was scared that our students were not going to show up because it was raining. What amazed me was that the number of students who showed up actually surpassed what we had planned. That moved me to the core. I am extremely proud of the team in the student council. I am extremely proud of the AMIU students who understood what we wanted to do, the mission, took it, embraced it and ran with it. None of what we\u2019ve done with these vaccination drives would have been possible without the students. That was my proudest moment as the Chair of the AMIU Student Council<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":2227,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[36,73,35],"yoast_head":"\nAmref Health Africa Hero: Ann Njogu - an interview — Amref Canada<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n