The Coronavirus pandemic has affected the entire world with catastrophic impacts on people’s lives, families and communities. The Covid-19 vaccination is the most powerful tool to stop the virus in its tracks and USPG’s church partners across the globe have reached out for financial support for their community schemes to encourage uptake of the vaccine.
In Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Tanzania there is a spread of misinformation that the vaccine causes infertility, disrupted menstrual cycles and in some cases death. The myths and fears have led to a lack of confidence in the COVID -19 vaccination and an uptake rate of just 10%. This also has the knock-on effect of people refusing all routine vaccinations due to COVID-19 vaccine fears, the impact of which may be felt for years to come. The Church is mobilising to respond to vaccine misinformation and generate more vaccine confidence in their local communities.
We urgently need to raise £46,000 to fund four vaccine uptake programmes in Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Tanzania. Each programme will include;
- Facilitation of Church leaders and medical experts who are trusted in the community
- Factual promotional campaigns to combat the wealth of misinformation
- Social media campaigns to restore vaccine confidence
- Vaccine outreach programmes
- Food hampers and PPE for people living with HIV in Zimbabwe where loss of livelihoods and food insecurity is a very real risk from COVID-19
The world is in a race against time to rollout the COVID-19 vaccination. We are standing in solidarity with the global Church in their fight against vaccine misinformation – will you join us?