The ‘foot soldiers’ fighting Covid-19

MAPOTENG – How do you persuade a community that is already highly sceptical of a vaccine and is fiercely opposed to any vaccination amid the devastation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic?

That is when one needs trusted and dedicated “foot soldiers” to spread a message of hope that the vaccine is safe and sound.

Tumelo Tsenoli, 35, and ’Makhabane Kurane, 66, who are members of the Citizen Voice and Action (CVA) group, have proved to be such “foot-soldiers”, in persuading villagers in Mapoteng to take up the vaccine.

For Tsenoli and Kurane, their advantage was that they are trusted members of the community. They live with the people and were trusted by the community.

In vouching for vaccination, their message had a certain resonance with the community as compared to when it could have come from a total stranger.

Their mere presence was reassuring and were able to transform people’s perceptions about the vaccination programme.

The CVA is a programme run under World Vision Lesotho that seeks to encourage dialogue between communities and government in order to improve services like health care and education.

’Mamotsiba Makara, who is the Mapoteng area programme coordinator for World Vision Lesotho dealing with health and sanitation issues, says they were able to sensitise people on Covid-19 in Mapoteng, thanks to the CVA team.

“We had to train the health centre committees on issues related to Covid-19 and ensuring that people get enough tools. We had to ensure they get capacitated on issues around Covid-19,” she says.

“We trained the four health centres with the expectation that what they had been taught, they were going to spread across the area programmes through community dialogues they were to conduct.”

Makara says at least 22 schools under the programme. They also held public gatherings led by members of the Citizens Voice in Action “where people were sensitised about Covid”.

“They were taught how they can prevent catching Covid, how they can get services and everything to do with Covid was covered and all the uncertainties that were there were cleared.”

Makara says thanks to the engagements with communities they were able to quickly dispel certain myths that were holding back the vaccination programme.

“We worked hand-in-hand with the Ministry of Health and were able to clear most of these myths such as that people would not be able to have children after vaccination,” she says.

“Others were claiming people would turn into baboons or Satanists, claiming the vaccine was a ‘mark of the beast’ (mentioned in the Book of Revelation).”

Makara says the different representatives in the health centres worked extremely hard to debunk most of these myths and reassure people that the vaccine was safe.

The teachers helped in capacitating the school children.

“We had pastors who were initially spreading propaganda about the Covid-19 vaccine but they are the ones who turned out to be on our side, spreading the good news and changing people’s thinking about the vaccine,” she says.

The result, she says, is that a lot of people ended up taking the vaccine.

Makara says the partnership with the WHO and the Ministry of Health was a success.

“We are now getting positive testimonies even in churches. We now have people preaching good news about taking the vaccine and accessing health services provided at the health centres,” she says.

Although she says they had a very short implementation period, the ACT-A project has been a resounding success with positive changes being seen every day in how people now behave.

“We have seen people’s behaviour really change because in schools we have Wash Clubs. There children are guiding others towards proper hygienic practices such as washing hands regularly which has now become a normal practice.

The CVA members are also encouraging the erection of tippy-taps in public spaces to encourage regular hand-washing.

“However, the challenge in some places remains the lack of access to water but still people are adhering to Covid-19 protocols and this convinces us that the message was delivered and was welcomed.”

World Vision Lesotho was working in partnership with the Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization (WHO) through the Access to Covid-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A) Project.

Funded by the Canadian government, the ACT-A project is a global collaboration to accelerate development, production, and equitable access to Covid-19 tests, treatments, and vaccines.

Its goal is to speed up an end to the pandemic by supporting the development and equitable distribution of tests, treatments and vaccines to reduce mortality and severe disease.

The project was implemented in four health centres – Zion Health Centre, Immaculate Health Centre, Mahlatsa Health Centre and Maluti Hospital in Mapoteng.

Staff Reporter