By Prince J Musa in Kenema
A non-governmental organization FOCUS 1000 with support from UNICEF has ended a polio vaccine monitoring training of 132 vaccine accountability monitors for the upcoming polio campaign in the Kenema district. The training took place in Joru, Gaura chiefdom, Blama in Small Bo chiefdom and Kenema city itself.
Addressing participants at various centers for the training that ran from the 5th -10th May 2021, the district coordinator for Kenema Focus 1000, Emanuel Musa encouraged them to serve as partners for effective and efficient service delivery to the people. He revealed that the campaign will capture children from 0-5 years, with a bottle of the vaccine meant to serve fifty children. He said it is the responsibility of the monitors to take inventory of the amount of bottles given to each team of vaccinators going out to administer the drug. He encouraged the monitors to take note of the amount of bottles used in the field and ensure proper returns were made, with the possibility of using the remaining ones in subsequent days.
He advised the monitors to make sure that used bottles of the vaccine are disposed of at the end of each day’s vaccination exercise.
Musa reiterated that proper record keeping by monitors with accurate data presentation is the key priority as Focus 1000 believes in investing on the health of children and women.
Fatmata Alpha a civil society activist who was one of the supervisors of the training encouraged the women trainees to be focused and be able to make the required impact. She said they should be polite in their approach and be mindful of their emotion otherwise their manner of interaction will make the work difficult for them.
She appealed to the women monitors to work in harmony in sharing ideas where needed and appealed to their male counterparts for cooperation.
The vaccination campaign will run from the 15 -18 May 2021.
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