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Modernity and Tradition Unite Against Measles in Ethiopia
Andrei Neacsu , Special to RedCross.org
Monday, November 03, 2003 — Six year-old Munira Nuradi came by herself to the vaccination post. Her parents told her to go to the place “where she would see a Red Cross sign.” Unlike the other children, she is not afraid of the injection. She even dares to look at her arm being pierced by the thin sharp needle as a Red Cross volunteer soothes her by gently caressing her young face.
Six year-old Munira Nuradi is not affraid of the measles
injection. She came all by herself to the vaccination post.
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Next in line is eight-year-old Tadele. He accepts the dose of vitamin A without difficulty, but when it comes to the injection he tries to wriggle away in fear. A volunteer talks to him for a few minutes and Tadele finally submits his arm for the jab, his face contorted in a grimace of pain. Despite tears streaming down his face, he manages to stride away proudly in an attempt to look brave in front of his mocking friends.
Munira and Tadele are among some 70,000 children in the Ethiopian town of Woliso, located about 100 miles south west of Addis Ababa, who are receiving their life-long protective dose of measles vaccine during this immunization campaign, the first of its kind here.
Nationwide, approximately 8 million Ethiopian children are being vaccinated in a campaign coordinated by the Ministry of Health, the World Health Organization and UNICEF and supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the UN Foundation, the American Red Cross and the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent.
Less than half of children in Ethiopia are immunized against preventable diseases and the Ethiopian Red Cross is determined to make a difference during this campaign.
The hundred volunteers mobilized in Woliso alone have already spread their net across the region. They spoke to every family and marked with chalk every house visited during a three-week long social mobilization campaign – during which they repeated incessantly the reasons why parents should bring their children to the vaccination posts.
Dozens of children, traveling alone or accompanied by older brothers or sisters, fill the Red Cross compound. An old tape recorder plays traditional Oromo music and many shoulders are wrapped in shawls embroidered in Ethiopia’s national colours – red, yellow and green -- giving the event a festive tone. But Azib Tessama, one of the volunteers, knows that there are still many children who haven’t arrived at the event.
Zena, a 14 year-old nomad blind begger receives her measles injection at the Red Cross vaccination post. |
“We have to continue searching for those children or youngsters who are likely to miss the immunization,”she says breathlessly as she walks briskly toward the town church.
It is Sunday and many of the poor and homeless might be there hoping for some charity at the end of the service. The blasting folk music played at the vaccination yard is replaced by the softer, more poignant sound of two blind women singing outside the church -- a mother and her daughter, Zena.
They are homeless and travel the country from one village to the next surviving on whatever people may be willing to give. They hadn’t heard about the measles vaccination campaign and 14-year-old Zena is within the age target group to be immunized.
It took Azib only few minutes to explain the importance of the vaccination as she walked hand in hand with them along the dusty road. At the Red Cross center, her hair wrapped in a scarf displaying the American flag, Zena receives her injection and vitamin A supplement. Immunized against measles, she can now continue her journey to the next city without fear of being stricken by measles.
Convincing people to get their children immunized should be a simple exercise. But often, volunteers and social workers face enormous obstacles in convincing parents that it is a responsible decision. Last year, a similar immunization campaign was aimed at vaccinating farmers’ cattle in the same region.
“Some of the animals were obviously already ill when they received the injection. Several died shortly after. The population was quick to associate the death of the animals to the vaccination process,” explains Dr Tisanes Belay, head of the Ministry of Health’s family health department. “It was extremely difficult for health workers to explain the situation to confused parents who refused to bring their children to vaccination calls.”
Traditional healer Birke Bizab believes that tradition and modernity together can eradicate measles. She made sure that her two year-old grandson was vaccinated against measles. |
In other areas, people were more receptive to the measles injection. “Comprising a few drops administered orally, the polio vaccine does not convince all parents that it is a serious medical practice. So when volunteers tell them that for measles their children will get an injection, parents usually have a more favorable attitude,” says Dr Solomon Fisseha, program co-coordinator of the Ethiopian Red Cross.
Quite often, traditional healers – whose opinion is well respected in a country where the national health system covers less than 50 per cent of the population – spread unfounded rumors and encourage people to ignore appeals for vaccination.
This is not the case in Woliso, where “mama” Birke Bizab, a traditional healer who specializes in skin diseases, fixing broken bones and easing back pain, is proud to present her freshly vaccinated two year-old grandson.
“God gave me some knowledge and skill. But I can only cure, not prevent. So why not offer my grandson the protection provided by modern medicine,” says the 68 year-old, who is also a traditional birth attendant.
Mama Birke’s garden is full of children from the neighborhood. “Whooo! Many bottoms I patted when I helped children coming to life,” she exclaims. Now she tells both children and parents to extend the youngsters lives, to take the chance and respond to the appeal for vaccination.
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