By Vincent Gunde
The Malawi Health Equity Network (MHEN) says the trends of immunization coverage in Malawi has increased from 63 percent in 2019 to 80 percent in 2025 which is the recommended coverage rate by the World Health Organization (WHO).
MHEN said this trends of an increase in immunization coverage is demonstrating that there is a significant population of children in Dowa district that are being reached with immunization services thanking Mother Care Groups for creating awareness to fellow community members about the importance of immunization.
The organization said Mother Care Groups apart from creating awareness to fellow community members, they have also promoted and facilitated access to immunization services by facilitating construction of village clinics and houses for Health Surveillance Assistants (HSAs).
Presenting the end of the project report for Gavi-Health Systems in Immunization Strengthening (HSIS) to the District executive committee (Dec) in Dowa, MHEN Project’s Accountant Grevazio Boko, said the project was implemented in 9 districts of Blantyre, Lilongwe, Mchinji, Dowa, Chitipa, Ntchisi, Kasungu, Mzimba North and Mzimba South.
Boko said the project targeted hard to-reach areas, urban slums and refugee camps, was being implemented by the Ministry of Health through Expanded Programme on Immunization, UNICEF responsible for procurements and the College of Medicine.
He said the project established Mother Care Groups in hard-to-reach areas, special Mother Care Groups camps at Dzaleka and urban slums, conducting interface meetings with stakeholders and collecting data for Monitoring and Evaluation, accountability and learning.
The Officer said Mother Care Groups were modeled through empowerment of women on how to advocate, defaulter tracking of under-5 children, demand creation on immunization, and registration of Under- Five children.
He said the project engaged media houses to review editorial policies for reporting on health, producing and broadcasting radio programmes on immunization and Health Systems Strengthening, and publishing quarterly platform policy brief as well as establishing a media award on Immunization and Health Systems Strengthening.
“The project supported media houses on the establishment of health desk to advocate for Health Systems Strengthening and immunization and producing quarterly Newsletter by Civil Society Organization (CSO),” said Boko.
He said the project’s Mother Care Groups have registered remarkable achievements such as building houses for HSAs, advocating taps at guardian shelters, bought benches for Maternity wing, construction of village clinics, and building toilets, among others.
However, Boko said the project met some challenges in the course of implementation such as Covid-19 pandemic which disrupted implementation of activities, delayed disbursement of funds, scarcity of fuel and dropping out of some members that were already trained.
He said on sustainability mechanism, the project has integrated Mother Care Groups activities in routine immunization activities, involvement of chiefs in Mother Care Group activities and the organization’s involvement in training HSA’s and monitoring Mother Care Groups.
The 5 years’ project-Gavi Health Systems in Immunization Strengthening (HSIS) was implemented from July, 2018 to June, 2025 with funds from Gavi, the vaccine Alliance
