BY THE COMMUNITY, FOR THE COMMUNITY!
“Will I contract COVID-19 due to the vaccine?”
“Does the vaccine cause infertility?”
“Young people have a strong immune system; they don’t need vaccines.”
“Vaccines have long-term, negative side effects.”
“They inject water instead of vaccines!”
Have you heard of these vaccine rumors? These rumors were spreading like wildfire in our slum communities.
For the parents of our children in slum communities, their need for the vaccine grew immensely when public transport in Mumbai required vaccination certificates for use. A majority of our parents are daily wage laborers, dependent on subsidized transport for commuting to their sites of work.
However, misinformation and rumors had created vaccine hesitancy among our communities. On one hand, they needed the vaccines to work, on the other, they had no reliable information to make informed decisions on.
Move over, to book vaccine slots, one needs to register online or stand in long queues at the public hospitals; many adults in these slum communities do not have access to the internet or smartphones, or are illiterate and hence unable to register for the vaccine.
From the time the vaccines rolled out in Mumbai, to date our #VisionRescue medical team has stepped in to debunk these myths and spread awareness and correct information about the COVID-19 vaccines through short videos, audio notes, and even awareness camps for our children’s parents
To bridge the gap further, one of our Community Champions – Aasma Khan – decided to step in! She is a parent of one of our students and she had been trained to lead community initiatives as part of our Community Champions Development Program from 2019. Aasma led a group of 20 other Community Champions to meet the local cooperator near their slum and request a vaccination camp for their community. They even found a nearby compound for the camp.
At their request, the local cooperator wrote to the health department of Thane Municipal Corporation, who responded positively. Aasma and her group informed members in their community about the forthcoming camp and on 5th October, 500 people from the slum community in Shanti Nagar, Kalwa received free vaccinations!
After the immense success of this vaccination camp, Aasma and her group of Champions met the cooperator once again for a second vaccination camp – this time for parents of Vision Rescue’s Beacon Learning Centre children. 700 vaccination doses were given at this camp within our classrooms!
1200 adults benefited in total from these vaccination camps organized BY the community FOR the community!
For nearly 3 years now, Vision Rescue has been training and equipping key parents in our slum communities to be change leaders as part of our Community Champions Development Program. Witnessing these camps has been a testament to the power of empowering community members to become agents of social changes in their own communities.
Thank you for your donations that make such initiatives possible!
