Improving Vaccine Confidence among Parents
With more people taking COVID-19 vaccinations globally, developing countries such as Kenya continue to depend on donations of COVID-19 vaccines from countries with a surplus.
Kenya has successfully administered over 2.5 Million doses of COVID-19 vaccines. Despite being slow, it indicates a positive direction towards immunizing its population of nearly 48 million.
Despite huge turnouts, widespread misinformation continues to decrease vaccine confidence across informal settlements and rural parts of Kenya. Hands of Love hasn’t been spared as many of our parents remain unwilling to take COVID-19 vaccinations. Some of the reasons they share reflect a lack of health awareness and sensitization on COVID-19 safety. This is concerning for our parents and students. Hope is not lost. Especially with all our staff having received their shots, thanks in part to our donors who incentivized the initiative.
Hands of Love has encouraged teachers to sensitize our parents on the significance of getting vaccinated. This is especially important to enhance confidence among our students when it's their turn. Additionally, the ongoing US-Embassy funded project in partnership with Hands of Love is involving our parents in the COVID-19 safety awareness training sessions. It may take time to build on vaccine confidence, but we remain hopeful that we can play our part towards promoting community health and sense of safety through uptake of COVID-19 vaccinations.