Sumbawanga and Zanzibar – The World Health Organization in Tanzania is working with the Ministries of Health in Tanzania Mainland and Zanzibar, to implement a community mobilization campaign aimed at raising the coverage of COVID-19 vaccination in Districts with low coverage; using vaccine “champions”.

The COVID-19 Vaccine Champions Campaign is a flagship bottom-up campaign focusing on community-based risk communications activities that are amplified by a concurrent social media campaign. With education and awareness raising at the core of its objectives, the campaign primarily targets vaccination priority groups as well as eligible persons in communities where vaccine uptake has been slow, and vaccine hesitancy prevalent.

The campaign was launched in Rukwa Region and Zanzibar, on 14th July and 21st July 2022, respectively. Speaking at launch, Regional Commissioner for Rukwa, Honourable Joseph Mkirikiri called on health professionals in the region to ensure that the region manages to increase immunization as the region has the same environment and traditions as Katavi region, a nearby well performing region.

District Commissioners from all the four districts of the Rukwa region participated in the launch, together with religious leaders, political leaders, officials from the Ministry of Health and the President’s Office Regional Administration and Local Governments. A total of 219 champions were engaged, trained and deployed to their communities.

At the onset of the campaign, Rukwa region had vaccinated ten percent of its total population of 1.3 million people. What sets this campaign apart is the focus on community-based micro-influencers. This approach has been highlighted for its efficacy in various studies illustrating that successful vaccination programmes require biological effectiveness, streamlined logistics, and comprehensive community engagement to ensure maximum uptake. There are compelling lessons in successful community engagement, rooted in, among other things, multi-faceted, multilingual approaches that engaged numerous community leaders and organizations, along with community youth.

During a similar launch event in West A district in Zanzibar, Honorable Hassan Khamis Hafidh, Deputy Minister of Health challenged the poorly performing districts to do everything possible to reach the 70% COVID-19 coverage. “Please help us sensitize the public to get vaccinated so that we offload the burden of treatment of COVID-19 patients from the government and households’ expenditure. Oxygen system is costly but avoidable if we all get vaccinated,” said the Deputy Minister of Health.

Present at the launch in Zanzibar, were District Commissioners, religious leaders, partners and the community at large. A total of 65 champions were engaged, trained and 200 people were vaccinated during the occasion. Four poorly performing districts namely: West A, West B Districts in Unguja and Micheweni and Mkoani in Pemba Island are targeted in the first phase of the campaign.  

Rukwa Region is also partnering with the International Medical Research Foundation (HJFMRI) to facilitate vaccination teams from the centers to deliver vaccines to people where they are, instead of waiting for them at health facilities.

Messaging of the campaign was tailored for general accessibility, empowering the selected micro-influencers to become well-informed advocates for support and change. Campaign materials developed echoed a unified message that #COVID-19 Vaccines Are Safe, #COVID-19 Vaccines Are Effective and #COVID-19 Vaccines Save Lives.

As WHO and partners seek to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 through support for vaccine rollout across the country, it is becoming increasingly critical to effectively and efficiently counter the continuing spread of misinformation that is driving vaccine hesitancy.