14 November 2022, Ishaka Bushenyi, and West Nile Uganda; Nairobi, Kenya: Recognizing the Covid vaccine hesitancy in many African countries despite vaccine availability and alarmed at WHO-Gavi indications of a decline in all immunization coverage during the Covid pandemic including zero-dose children, AAN is initiating 3 pilot vaccine advocacy campaigns in two of its 12 member countries – Uganda and Kenya.

Uganda: the nursing students at the Kampala International University School of Nursing (KIUSON) have trained nursing-student advocates, who then reach out to 10 -17-year-olds in local schools, working with district health officials to ensure follow-up school-based vaccination. KIU students have developed advocacy training tools, engaged stakeholders, and analysed Covid vaccine data in pilot areas. The tools and approach have also been adapted for use in a pilot site led by West Nile Branch of the Uganda Nurses & Midwives Union.

Kenya: The Reproductive Health Network Kenya (RHNK)’s broad network of nurses, the community health workers and youth peer providers are piloting HPV vaccination advocacy training to generate HPV vaccine demand among 24, 000 girls in Kilifi County, with the goal of increasing HPV knowledge; building referral systems for HPV vaccination and educating communities on HPV vaccination for cervical cancer prevention.

Training and Education tools: Thetraining, education and public information tools developed for the AAN Vaccine Advocacy Campaigns can be freely accessed at https://africactionetwork.com/aan-vaccine-advocacy-projects

 *The Covid Africa Action Network for Nurses & Nurse-Midwives (AAN) is an all-volunteer group of health care professionals, supporting nurses & midwives through enhanced access to reusable PPE and immunisation advocacy.  www.africactionetwork.ch . For more information contact Linda Carrier-Walker lcw@carrierwalker.ch