Ahead of the nationwide Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine roll out, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has partnered some six CSOs to intensify the campaign.
The partnership is to enable them to reach out to adolescent girls, particularly out-of-school girls between the ages of nine and 14, on the need to take the vaccine to avoid cervical cancer, one of the leading causes of death among women.
The partner CSOs are: Theatre for Social Change (TfSC), Curious Minds Ghana, DAWAH Academy, Muslim Women in Teaching (MUSWIT), The Light Foundation and Meta Foundation.
Ghana joined over 140 countries globally, including 28 in the World Health Organisation (WHO) African Region where the HPV vaccination had been mainstreamed into their routine immunisation programmes to safeguard adolescent girls.
Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer globally, with over 600,000 women diagnosed each year.
The highest burden is borne by sub-Saharan Africa, together with Central America and South-East Asia.
More than half of patients succumb to the disease, while nine out of 10 deaths occur in developing countries.
Event
Speaking at the second national conference of Muslim Women in Teaching Ghana (MUSWIT) in Kumasi, Ashanti Region, the Social Behaviour Change Specialist of UNICEF Ghana, Charity Nikoi, underscored the critical role of CSOs to the successful rollout of the vaccine.
She said working with religious and community leaders, taking vaccine information directly to homes, training locals to spread accurate messages, and using peer networks to remind eligible girls to get vaccinated were some of the measures being taken.
Ms Nikoi urged members of MUSWIT to champion the HPV vaccine during public gatherings, build trust by encouraging their families to choose facts over fear, support school-based vaccination and also reach out to girls outside the school system.
She further encouraged them to fight misinformation about the vaccines by intensifying education about the essence of the vaccine to disabuse the minds of the people, especially parents.
Reaching out
For her part, the National President, MUSWIT, Hajia Amina Deen Ibrahim, said since it was easy to vaccinate girls in school, engaging CSOs to help reach out to out-of-school girls was a good step.
Ghanaian cultural tours
She said engaging MUSMIT, a Muslim organisation, would make it easier for them to convince the Muslim community to wholeheartedly accept the vaccine, adding that “sometimes such programmes face challenges due to religious beliefs.
And, therefore, involving us will help deal with all religious considerations.”
She lauded UNICEF for bringing the CSOs on board and said “we will do our best to intensify the campaign to convince the girls to get vaccinated”.
Source: graphic.com.gh
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