It takes people to make #VaccinesWork

Every year, all kinds of practitioners help to deliver around 400 million shots to infants, adolescents and adults in every country on Earth. This is a tribute to those whose efforts save millions of lives every year.

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Immunization can sometimes seem to be fixated on numbers. Conversations are dominated by coverage rates, the numbers of zero-dose children, the numbers of new vaccine introductions. Every July, global immunization data are published and pored over in great detail.

But immunization isn’t really about numbers. It’s about people. It’s about the infants being protected against killer infectious diseases, adolescent girls being spared the threat of cervical cancer, people of all ages escaping the worst impacts of COVID-19. And it’s about the countless people in every country who work tirelessly to get vaccines to those who need them, wherever they are.

The Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF) called on Members of the Movement for Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030) to?“show how your daily work makes a difference in protecting children and their families from vaccine-preventable diseases”. More than 1000 photos were submitted during World Immunization Week by IA2030 Movement members working with communities in nearly 60 countries.

Each picture does not just tell a story.?It also provides an opportunity to learn?about the?“how”?of immunization?

Each picture does not just tell a story. It also provides an opportunity to learn about the?“how”?of immunization, which requires health professionals to connect with the communities they serve. Immunization means bringing families into health systems, a health professional meeting and speaking with a parent or caretaker, a child being assessed during its early vulnerable life, then finally vaccines administered to prevent illness and death. And it’s happening more than 400 million times each year. Regardless of gender, wealth or ethnicity, and in some of the most challenging circumstances imaginable. These pictures reflect a tiny percentage of those 400 million individual events and the enormous commitment of health professionals, people, communities and governments necessary to make that happen each year.

Collectively, they provide insights into the everyday experience of immunization practitioners: what it actually takes to deliver vaccines to populations – a monumental effort undertaken every year for each new birth cohort. It’s worth remembering that, globally, immunization services still reach more people than any other health service. There are cold chains to manage, distribution systems to organize, community outreach sessions to run, records to keep and analyse.

The pictures are a reminder of the many different roles that need to be fulfilled. Immunization programmes depend on the coordinated activities of vaccinators, supervisors, cold chain managers, community mobilizers, researchers and multiple others, all of whom are essential cogs in the immunization machinery.?

The photos provide a vivid picture?of what immunization means in practice

The photos provide a vivid picture of what immunization means in practice: what a community immunization session looks like; what a health facility session looks like; what environmental challenges really look like. Some show the seldom reported practicalities of immunization: the finger marking, the paperwork, the ice boxes on motorbikes. But often it is the incidental detail that is revealing: the rubble in an insecure area; the damaged ceiling of a health facility; the vaccinators’?footwear; the sheer numbers of people attending sessions.?

What shines through is the sense of pride?and commitment of health workers

Yet what always emerges is the humanity of recipient and provider: the smiling faces of the children whose future is being protected, the protectiveness of parents and other caregivers. And, above all, what shines through is the sense of pride and commitment of health workers, who every day are doing their utmost to ensure that vaccines are where they need to be and that people want to receive them.?

People who are vaccinated, and people who deliver vaccines, are not numbers. Each is an individual whose life is worth protecting and whose efforts to help others need recognizing. When the next set of immunization data are released, it is worth reflecting what they truly mean for people in need and the people striving to meet that need.

Where to see the complete collection

• The complete collection of IA2030 Movement photo stories can be?viewed on Instagram.
• An inauguration event for the photo stories was held on 17 June 2022?at Teach to Reach: Connect 6. It can be viewed on YouTube.

The IA2030 Movement

During 2022, 6185 health professionals from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) applied to join the “Movement for Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030)” and participated in a four-month programme of digitally enabled peer learning events. Focusing on a specific local priority challenge, participants undertook a structured five-stage process:

• Initiation: Committing to the Movement and completing an application survey
• Ideas generation: Sharing ideas with global peers
• Situational analysis: Undertaking a systematic analysis of the causes of their challenge
• Action planning: Developing an action plan, reviewed by peers
• Impact accelerator: A four-week project kick-start with weekly milestones.

Programme participants (“Scholars”) will spend the next 6–12 months completing their projects, periodically reporting back on progress.

This Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030) Listening and Learning Report is part of the?IA2030?Movement’s?Knowledge-to-Action Hub.?Learn more about the Hub…?Learn more about the Movement…