It takes a community to ensure children are healthy
Roughly 360km from the capital city Gaborone, lies a small village of Motokwe in the Kweneng District. Here, health officials and partners have had to find smart ways to ensure that children under five years receive vital immunisations and attend the all-important monthly child welfare clinics.
This is where community members such as Moleti Obakeng come in. Obakeng runs a shebeen in one of the home-steads in the village. The project is a partnership between various stakeholders including UNICEF Botswana, USAID, Ministry of Health, and the Botswana Red Cross Society, and its aim is to support the Ministry of Health’s efforts in addressing impending risks of vaccine Preventable Disease outbreaks by strengthening Primary
Health Care. The project is currently implemented in Kweneng East and West.
Sharing her experience of how she came to positively impact her society, Obakeng beams with pride. After all, as a mother, she knows too well the importance of children receiving routine vaccines, as well as the impact attending the Child welfare clinics can have in a child’s life. Even with her current profession, eking a living from selling alcohol, she wanted her customers' children to also go through this right of passage and, went above and beyond to ensure that they remained committed.
Originally from Letlhakeng, but now a resident of Motokwe, Obakeng explains that she runs a shebeen in Itlhabanele Ward. She explains that her customers are mostly parents, especially those with small kids. In November she had a visit from Botswana Red Cross Society team, who informed her that they were looking for children who have defaulted on Child welfare clinic.
“I realised that some of the parents boasted about not taking their children to the clinic for the monthly check, that’s when I decided to work with the team. I had taken the contacts of the team, and every time one parent arrives, I would call them so that they should access the cards. If that person has not been taking the child to the clinic. I would also encourage mothers to take their children to the clinic. In the event that they refuse, I would call the team,” she explains, adding that some of the children were taken to the clinic for maybe three months, and the parents stopped taking them. Others did not even have the cards.
Some mothers, she says would cite excuses such as not having washing powder, or Vaseline, and she would supply them. Taking her role seriously, she also reminds her customers monthly when their date approaches.
“I am a mother, and I know about the importance of vaccines. And I know that once they miss out on the vaccines, it is not good. They also do not register on time for Ante Natal checks. And some of them even give birth at home. They talk in my presence, and when I realise that, I alert the relevant authority,” she explains.
One mother, who only gave her name as Kekopile shared that it was difficult for some of them to take children to the welfare clinic. Citing examples such as employers sending them to the cattle post, which makes the visit to the clinic difficult. She also commended Obakeng for what she does in order to ensure that children benefit from the monthly visits.
According to Kelositse Molale, one of the Botswana Red Cross Society volunteers, when moving door to door visiting families to find out why children were missing out on Child welfare clinic, they observed that most of the time, parents spent their time at shebeens. She explains that it was then that they decided to engage Obakeng, as she had easy access to them.
“Through this initiative, when she sees the parents at her Shebeen, she gives us a call, and we could locate the parents and convince them to take the children to child welfare,” she explains, noting that they were successful because of her efforts.
Citing alcoholism as one of the challenges, she pointed out that after engaging Obakeng, they started seeing positive results. As part of this project, some of the children who were found to be malnourished, were immediately given immediate attention, and intervention.
Giving insight about the project, the Secretary General of the Botswana Red Cross Society, Kutlwano Mukokomani explains that the objective of the project and its intervention is to ensure that communities are sensitised on child health issues and Covid-19. The project, he says aims to ensure that vaccines are deployed, and that other child health services are rendered at the grassroots level.
Under the project, the Botswana Red Cross Society provided 58 human resource support, including 40 mobilisers, eight data clerks, eight vaccinators, and two supervisors were placed in 17 villages across the two districts. In addition, support was also provided in the delivery of services through the deployment of vehicles, which also supported the distribution of vaccines and other commodities to hard-to-reach areas, including cattle posts.
“Our approach remains resolute in participatory community-centred delivery. We always ensure that we work closely with key community’s structures to identify and address the existing barriers and enablers to the uptake of child health services and vaccination,” he explains.