Situated on the coast along the Bay of Bengal, Odisha is the 8th largest Indian state by area, and the 11th largest by population. Considering Odisha is population-dense and has pockets of difficult terrain, the state faced several challenges when the COVID-19 vaccination drive was implemented. Some of these were vaccine hesitancy, lack of access to vaccination among communities living in far-flung areas, and lack of awareness about COVID-19 vaccination. The project team devised local solutions for the challenges and successfully enhanced vaccine uptake in project districts in Odisha like - implementing innovative and locally acceptable community engagement interventions such as drum-beating and leveraging the cultural folk ballad Pala; organizing community dialogues; and reaching hard-to-reach areas with vaccination messaging and doing line listing.
The project activities were implemented in 25 districts through 5 sub-awardees: TCIF, HelpAge India, Plan, HLFPPT, SMRC
To increase the uptake of COVID-19 vaccination, the project supports the Government of India and the state Government in vaccination planning, inter-departmental coordination, need-based monitoring, enhanced community engagement, and prioritization of activities for COVID-19 vaccination programs at the state and district. The team led risk communication activities with the state officials and coordinated efforts to enhance vaccination in low-coverage areas.
The project used bike vaccine express, and mobile vaccine van express to reach last-mile populations.
The project used special occasions like Independence Day, women’s day, World Immunisation week, Eid, and Diwali to disseminate vaccination messages through on the ground community engagement, advocacy, and vaccination activities.
The project and state team worked closely with community stakeholders like religious leaders, Elderly groups, PRI members, and local CBOs to address vaccine hesitancy in communities.
The project translated COVID-19 communication materials into the local language to better reach people in hard-to-reach areas.
The project team organized a Learning & Experience Sharing Meeting in Odisha with sub-awardee HLFPPT on May 3, 2023. The sub-awardees in the state presented their work and exchanged their learnings and field experiences. During the meeting, district officials and stakeholders were felicitated for their outstanding support to the project.The meeting saw the participation of key project stakeholders including senior government officials such as the Director of Family Welfare, and JD, Immunization, Odisha; the JSIPL team; and sub-awardees. The meeting helped drive discussions around leveraging learnings from COVID-19 vaccination for routine immunization strengthening.
The project team organized a Learning & Experience Sharing Workshop in Odisha with sub-awardee SMRC on April 26, 2023. With an attendance of 110 participants, the workshop focused on knowledge exchange for promoting the inclusion of persons with disability in the COVID-19 vaccination program and replicating this in similar health programs. The workshop witnessed project stakeholders such as senior government fficials - the Director of Family Welfare, State EPI Officer, and JD, Immunization, Govt. of Odisha; the senior management from USAID/India and JSIPL; and SMRC and istrict-level staff.
Communication materials such as posters were inaugurated during the workshop. A panel discussion was held on the experience of district-level staff of working during the COVID-19 pandemic. Staff members and a volunteer were felicitated for their outstanding work during COVID-19 vaccination.
The key takeaway of the workshop was that the experience of reaching out to the most vulnerable populations, such as people with disability, can be utilized for strengthening other ongoing national health rograms like Routine Immunization.
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