By Marco Jiménez in Port-au-Prince
"One of the people vaccinated today will be the 100,000th of the campaign," says Dr. Bathélémy Guibert, the director of the municipal health office at Fonds-Verrettes - a municipality in the Croix-des-Bouquets arrondissement in Haiti's quake zone.
"These vaccinations are another opportunity for people to survive the tragedy, children above all," he says.
Vaccinations used to be carried out yearly by the health ministry, but it was all brought to a halt by January's devastating earthquake.
The hundreds of thousands of displaced people left behind meant vaccination was an urgent priority - one the Haitian health ministry was anxious to get back on the agenda in an effort to prevent disease.
The IFRC was one of the first organizations to respond - making its human and material resources available to protect at least 150,000 children and adults from measles, diptheria, pertussis and tetanus.
Big task
Coordination is complex, bringing the health ministry together with the Haitian National Red Cross Society (HNRCS), UNICEF (which provided vaccines and refrigeration), community organizations and other humanitarian partners.
"The work is complicated and challenging in this environment," said Marie-Claude Élie, the Canadian vaccination team leader.
"Coordinating many actors, complying with local procedures and infrastructures, and above all convincing people of the importance of vaccination for the future of their families is a big task if you put it all together."
The new round of vaccinations got underway on 8 February, including the HNRCS - with 120 volunteer vaccinators on the ground - and seven National Societies from Finland, France, Germany, Japan, the Republic of Korea and a joint Canadian-Norwegian team.
"Fortunately there are more partners joining," said Marianne Monclair, medical coordinator for the IFRC Field Assessment and Coordination Team in Haiti.
"We hope this will help the health ministry and UNICEF reach their objective of vaccinating 700,000 people as soon as possible."
Dignity
In Villambetta, a poor neighbourhood on the slopes above Port-au-Prince, residents are puzzled at the arrival of the first vaccination team.
Some 3,000 people moved to makeshift camps in this area after their homes were destroyed or damaged in the quake.
Humanitarian organizations have installed latrines and distributed tarpaulins and tents, but conditions still seem dire.
"I don't have money or a job," says 36 year-old Gino Lamas, a father of five. "All I want is for my family to be happy, a small house to live in, a school for my children, to recover a little dignity. Is that too much to ask?
"Before the earthquake I did not have any of that, and now it's all further away than ever."
Fighting back
The vaccination campaign, in these circumstances, has not been easy to sell.
As the vaccination posts are installed, the Red Cross gently reminds people that by vaccinating themselves and their children, they are fighting back against the extreme vulnerability into which the earthquake threw them.
"We have done everything we can to support our community," says Noel Ylmond, leader of Villambetta's displaced.
"Our priority has been to put children first from the very beginning. But it's difficult for people to accept that when other priorities seem more pressing.
"These children are our hope, our future".
Five vaccination teams have been operational since 8 February, vaccinating as many as 10,000 in a single day.
Low rates
The vaccination consists of five different components: measles, diptheria, pertussis and tetanus, as well as albendezol - a deworming agent - and vitamin A.
"We still have 50,000 more people to vaccinate," says Dr. Guilbert, a former professor at the university medical faculty and the nurses school, both destroyed in the earthquake.
"The experience our volunteers gathered working with the multinational teams is a valuable asset that can benefit the whole Haitian health system, especially now that medical education has been destroyed.
"It's very satisfying to have reached all these people in Haiti, where low vaccination rates are chronic."