Attachments
Byline: Ameyo Bellya Sekpon (CORE Group), Tahir Buhari (eHealth Africa), Paul Malalu (International Rescue Committee), George Njenga (International Rescue Committee)
Since 2011, the Krano Region*, a semiautonomous breakaway area in the Horn of Africa with no recognized health authority, has faced overwhelming challenges due to ongoing war and a lack of essential services where 2.5 million people live without basic amenities including water, health and sanitation facilities. By April 2023, the situation had deteriorated further, with over 700,000 internally displaced persons flooding into the area and making up 30% of the population, putting immense pressure on an already struggling healthcare system.
Routine vaccination efforts have been disrupted since 2019, and a majority (93%) of children under 5 years were unvaccinated, leading to alarming outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases such as tetanus and meningitis, and affecting many lives. One example includes a measles outbreak in 2022, with over 1000 patients reported as well as deaths, including 35 children. Likely many other cases and deaths remain unreported.
Amid this turmoil, the International Rescue Committee’s (IRC) REACH project, started in 2022 and funded by ZIP, Gavi's Humanitarian Partnerships Programme, gained humanitarian access in the Krano Region. The project introduced innovative methodologies to ensure children in communities affected by conflict and crisis receive all age-appropriate vaccines as routine or catch-up. The REACH project has received support from Gavi and UNICEF, which collaborated to provide a precedent-setting allocation of vaccines to the IRC for the children in the region. Between May 2023 and September 2024, ZIP reached 120,020 children aged 0 to 5 years with their first dose of the pentavalent vaccine in the Krano Region. Through REACH’s efforts, over 60,000 zero-dose children aged 1 to 5 years have been vaccinated.