By Wanangwa Tembo:

In the north eastern tip of Kasungu District near the border with Mzimba sits a community called Manjondo Village.

By all criteria, this community on the eastern verge of Traditional Authority Simlemba is a true definition of a hard-to-reach area. It has poor road connectivity due a hilly terrain.

There is no cellphone signal there. It mostly relies on motorcycles to navigate the difficult landscape in search of better social services such as healthcare elsewhere in the district.

“Our nearest health centre is at Simlemba, some 18 kilometres from here. Elsewhere, this would be regarded as a short distance, but not with us here as you can see the terrain for yourself.

“The topography has made it difficult for us to have good roads and this disadvantages us in so many ways, and the lack of cellphone signal worsens it all,” says Group Village Head Manjondo.

Long distances to healthcare facilities contribute to high immunisation default rates amongst children under the age of five, health authorities say.

“That is now ‘a death sentence’ for children living in such localities,” Manjondo says.

Since the World Health Organisation (WHO) launched the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) in 1974 to mark the beginning of the global efforts to use immunisation as a public health intervention, stakeholders in the health sector have been leading campaigns for mass immunisation of children as a way of domesticating the efforts.

However, children in the hard-to-reach areas like those in Manjondo have not received the services on equal footing with others due to geographical barriers.

Such communities also harbour rooted myths and beliefs that derail immunisation efforts largely due to lacking knowledge on the importance of vaccines because service providers have not been able to take information to the places.

To bridge such gaps, the Malawi Health Equity Network (Mhen) is implementing a Health Systems and Immunisation Strengthening (HSIS) project to contribute towards the achievement of the country’s health targets for Sustainable Development Goals of ending preventable deaths of newborns and children under five years of age by 2030.

The HSIS project, which is funded by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (Gavi) through the Ministry of Health, also aims to achieve participatory health governance to ensure that barriers to equitable and quality immunisation are reduced, enabling women, children and communities to access quality immunisation services.

As part of the activities under the project, Mhen has facilitated the establishment of Mother Care Groups (MCGs) as community-led mobilisation structures drumming up support for the vaccination uptake.

Gloria Banda chairs Manjondo MCG and gives an account of the 30-member group’s achie