USAID & Help Age India inoculate over 21,000 marginalised beneficiaries with Covid-19 vaccination

HT Bureau
GUWAHATI, July 26: Help Age India has inoculated over 21,000 beneficiaries in Assam’s Kamrup Rural & Metro, Jorhat and Sivasagar districts under the USAID’s “The Momentum Routine Immunisation Transformation and Equity Covid 19 Vaccination Project”.
The inoculation programmes were carried out with the active support from the senior citizens associations in several locations in all operational districts in addition to mentoring organisations of Assam state based Jan Shikshan Sansthan, Assam Government Directorate of Health Services through the district immunisation officials and Primary Health Centres. The coverage areas include the community-based locations and involve the volunteers, Asha workers, Anganwadi workers, NGOs, Panchayats, religious leaders, clubs, schools, colleges, tea estates, etc.
“The objective of the programme is to improve vaccination coverage and equitable distribution of Covid-19 vaccines in select locations within the operational districts and engage with communities with targeted interventions to encourage vaccination and combat misinformation,” Nilondra Tanya, state head (Programmes) of the Help Age India in the North East said.
HELP AGE and US AID facilitate registration and community-based service delivery models such as mobile brigades or leveraging community assets as vaccination sites to improve uptake and address last mile service delivery challenges by using mobile vans, transportation, etc. The programme is designed to engage traditionally unreached sub-groups for equitable coverage. It also involves private sector and charitable hospitals in addition to the public sector workforce.