The village of Kona in Mali’s Bougouni region is 23 kilometers from the nearest community health center. Two years ago, based on rumors about the adverse effects of COVID-19 vaccines, community leaders and heads of households lost trust in the public health system and suspended all vaccinations, community nutrition activities, and use of medicine for children to prevent seasonal malaria.
Souleymane Koné, a USAID supported community health volunteer in Kona, conducted sessions advocating public health initiatives to resume in the village. “All the actions I took were disavowed by my community because, at that time, I was seen as someone who received money to make the community accept vaccination,” Souleymane confided. A few months later, consequences of suspending vaccinations hit hard and more than 10 cases of measles and whooping cough were recorded among children aged 0 to 5 in Kona. This stark reminder of the importance of routine vaccinations was a catalyst for coaching visits by Souleymane and community dialogue about resuming public health activities.
“We realized that we had made a mistake in stopping vaccination in the village and this exposed our children to infectious diseases. Now that we are aware of the benefits of vaccination, community leaders and heads of households agreed to resume vaccinations of so that our children are all fully vaccinated,” added Moussa Koné, the president of a local youth group. Thanks to this renewed commitment to public health, the village of Kona was well placed to benefit from USAID’s flagship community health activity in Mali. Throughout 2022, USAID Keneya Nieta worked with the people and leaders of Kona to address distrust of the health system, identify priority health issues, and coach community volunteers to be local health leaders.
This partnership yielded results, and in August 2022, the community enthusiastically welcomed the first routine vaccinations in two years. “The crowd was so large during the first session that the doses planned for the children were not enough…The men who were once fiercely opposed to vaccination had all become mobilizers…During this first session, 19 children and 11 pregnant women were vaccinated,” Koné reported.
USAID Keneya Nieta supported 1,091 villages like Kona in 2022 with vaccination outreach and vaccinated over 100,000 children. Mali is one of the few countries in Africa that did not lose ground on childhood vaccination rates during the COVID-19 pandemic. By working together throughout the pandemic, USAID and Malian communities saved lives, strengthened community health platforms, and maintained vaccination rates to reduce maternal and infant mortality.
