No one left behind

The Covid-19 Prevention Project of World Vision Lanka, supported by the European Union Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid ensures that we are prepared to accommodate the needs of elderly, pregnant and lactating mothers and people with disabilities when they receive vaccination services. 

We believed that the optimal planning for mobile vaccination will reduce considerable amount of expenses and most importantly, can save lives, especially those from the most vulnerable communities.

Our mobile vaccination system supports the people who may find it difficult to visit vaccination centres due to health/physical restrictions or financial constraints.

Accompanied by our local stakeholders; Ministry of Health, Hospital staff and Social Service Department, World Vision Lanka deployed a mobile vaccination fleet to reach otherwise feeble citizens who were unable to go to a vaccination centre.

“I have three boys who are physically impaired. Their father goes out for some odd jobs to provide for them. I stay home all day long taking care of my boys, bathing them, dressing them, feeding them, carrying them to the toilet and giving them medicines, monitoring their health” says Nagarathnam Bavani (Eechilapatru, East, Sri Lanka)

She continues “With the outbreak of Covid-19 there were few members from my community and village committee rushed us to get vaccinated against the virus. My husband and I had all three vaccines. But I was extremely worried about my boys who can’t come out to get vaccinated. I was so much afraid thinking they are more vulnerable to the disease without proper vaccination”.

“We could not afford to take them in a private vehicle to the vaccination centre and we didn’t feel safer about taking them in a public vehicle that boards general public. I requested few people in my village if they could help us in getting my boys vaccinated. But they were also not in a better position to support us” she sighs.

“But one day I heard the sound of couple of vehicles slowing down by my house. I saw few people dressed in white and approaching me. Our Grama Niladhari was one among them, and he introduced the others as a Public Health Inspector (PHI), a nurse, a Social Service Officer and one from World Vision Office and he said they were there on mobile vaccination and my boys are also in their list to inoculate”.

“I was overwhelmed to see my boys getting their dose of vaccines. The officers monitored for allergic reactions for about 15 to 30 minutes and shared with some accessible information about whom to call if I get any concerns. They also scheduled the vaccination dates for the second and third dose. In another couple of months my children were fully vaccinated”, she concludes.

So far, World Vision Lanka have helped 131,537 people who had challenges accessing vaccination centres, get vaccinated. Among them were 566 persons with disabilities and 11,889 elderly people from Batticaloa, Gampaha, Jaffna, Kandy, Kurunegala, Kilinochchi, Nuwara Eliya and Trincomalee districts. 

We organized 239 vaccination campaigns, including mobile campaigns that bring vaccination services closer to people who had limited access to vaccine centers in terms of travelling long distance, mobility issues and family care schedules. 

We also make sure that health workers who are part of these campaigns are taken care of by providing them with transport and meals to better serve our people.