Commemoration of the African Vaccination Week and Child Health Days, Botswana

This year’s AVW focus in Botswana was to reduce the number of un-immunised children through reinforcing routine immunization.

To Commemorate African Vaccination Week and Child Health Days, additional support was provided to selected low performing districts during the period April 22- May 31, 2013. The districts selected were Gaborone, Kanye/Moshupa, Goodhope, Mahalapye and Okavango.

This year’s African Vaccination Week was commemorated together with the annual Child Health Promotion Week on the 23rd April, 2013 under the theme “Healthy Children; Great Future” with the slogan “Vaccinate, Prevent disabilities, Save lives”.

Kampala, 22 January 2013: As the third annual African Vaccination Week (AVW) got under way today in all of Africa Region’s countries, Uganda launched its beginning by holding a media briefing announcing the region’s intensified vaccination activities to protect children against diseases.

A launch media event was held in Kampala with the participation of Minister of State (Primary Health Care) Honourable Sarah Opendi Aceng, the World Health Organization Representative for Uganda, Dr Wondimagegnehu Alemu and other Ministry of Health officials. 

The observance of the African Vaccination Week in Liberia was primarily a mass media campaign.

The strategies used were as follows:

African Union, Addis Ababa, 22 April 2013: The experts meeting in preparation for the 6th Session of the African Union (AU) Conference of Ministers of Health (CAMH 6), kicks off today, and will run up to 26 Apr 2013 in Addis Ababa. The theme for the conference focuses on “The impact of Non –Communicable diseases (NCDs) and Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) on development in Africa”.

BRAZZAVILLE/DAKAR/NAIROBI, 22 April 2013 - Reaching more people and strengthening immunization on the continent is the aim of the third African Vaccination Week (AVW) being celebrated from 22–28 April 2013 under the theme “Save lives. Prevent disabilities. Vaccinate!”

The Launch of the African Vaccination Week took place on the 22 of April by an advocacy meeting chaired by the Ministry of health. 

The AVW will continue up to the 28 April in health districts with the implementation of strategies aiming at increasing vaccination coverage in hard to reach areas, in vulnerable groups, and screening and management of malnutrition. 

Nairobi Kenya, 22 April 2013 -- The World Immunization Week (WIW) was successfully launched at a colorful ceremony at Makadara Health Centre grounds in Nairobi County. Gracing the occasion was the representative of the Director, Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation, Dr Tatu Kamau.

Nutrition Stakeholders in Sierra Leone with leadership from the Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS)  and technical support from WHO ended a 3 day micronutrient stakeholder consultative technical workshop on 12 April 2013 in Freetown. The meeting was held to engage partners to come up with concrete strategies and recommendations that will guide a successful conduct of the 2013 National Micronutrient Survey as well as to finalize the survey protocol. The opening session of the meeting was graced by Mr Foday Sawie, Deputy Minister-II of MoHS.

Lilongwe, on 19 April 2013 -- In commemoration of 2013 World Health Day, the Minister of Health, Honorable Catherine Gotani Hara, MP was the guest of honor when Kasungu District Health Office (DHO) led all District Health Offices and the Ministry of Health to commemorate World Health Day with the theme: “High blood pressure” and the slogan “act now to prevent high blood pressure.” The main event took place at Kasungu community ground but some activities started at the district hospital.