Sierra Leone’s COVID-19 vaccination drive receives boost from Mastercard Foundation

SIERRA LEONE—The Mastercard Foundation through its Saving Lives and Livelihoods Initiative has expanded its support to Sierra Leone’s Expanded Immunization Programme in a push to vaccinate people in hard-to-reach areas.

The Mastercard Foundation has placed US$ 1.5 billion into the saving lives and Livelihoods programme managed by the African CDC since June 2021 to accelerate COVID-19 vaccine purchase and distribution in Africa.

Sierra Leone’s government Expanded Immunization Programme involves three other vital partners in its drive to reach people in communities of 16 districts with the lowest vaccine uptake.

The partners include the Sierra Leone Red cross society working on risk communication and community engagement (RCCE), and Focus 1000 that’s supporting Covid-19 vaccination centres.

The final partner is the African Medical Supplies platform that is supporting the vaccines supply chain management.

The drive is using a more people-centred approach to improve the vaccine uptake from current levels of 54% to a least 82% by the close of the drive in September 2023.

Through daily social mobilization and community engagement activities as well as vaccination of their community leaders, religious leaders, and tribal heads, the programme aims to build trust and influence in the communities they are working in.

“Working with the community is key; putting them at the centre of what we do is very important, as we are engaging the community to take the COVID-19 vaccine,” noted Kadiatu Jalloh, RCCE Officer from Sierra Leone Red Cross Society.

A recent workshop convened between Africa CDC and Mastercard Foundation underscored outreaches and campaigns will be bundled with other primary healthcare interventions to accelerate uptake of the COVID-19 by member states.

Mastercard’s continued intervention in Africa is timely as the infection had surpassed 4.9 million cases with nearly 130, 000 deaths reported and had plunged the continent into its first recession in 25 years.

Recently Mastercard Foundation launched a 10-year, US$200 million health collaborative with 7 African higher education institutions to train over 30,000 front-line health providers and policy shapers.

Cumulatively, the saving lives and livelihoods initiative has administered 23,159,340 doses of the vaccine on the continent as of February, 2023.

Uptake of the Covid 19 vaccine has been relatively low due to continued misperceptions about the vaccine’s long-term side effects.

Data from the African CDC shows that only 54% of the continent’s population has been vaccinated in comparison to the global average of 70%.

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