The Rwanda Red Cross, on Thursday, October 27, announced that it will be working with the Africa Center for Disease Control (Africa CDC) in the implementation of the Saving Lives and Livelihoods (SLL) Program, an initiative aimed at supporting vaccination efforts.

The SLL is a $1.5 billion partnership between the Africa CDC and the MasterCard Foundation, put in place to support the delivery of vaccines across the continent, purchase Covid-19 vaccines for more than 65 million people, sensitise populations about vaccination, among other things.

Currently the project is being implemented in a number of African countries including Rwanda.

According to Kamau Gitundu, the National Coordinator for the SLL Program in Rwanda, their partnership with Rwanda Red Cross will focus on risk communication and community engagement in order to increase vaccine demand and reduce hesitancy.

"They (Rwanda Red Cross) will talk to people to not only reduce the hesitancy but increase demand of the vaccine so that we can reach our target of having more than 70 percent of people vaccinated,” he said.

Speaking in an interview with the media, Eugene Karangwa, the Head of Emergency Preparedness and Prevention at Rwanda Red Cross, said Rwanda’s vaccination efforts have been going on well but there are some perception-related barriers that still need to be dealt with.

"As you know, we have spent many days in vaccination campaigns. Many people received the first and second dose, but the numbers are still low in regard to the booster. So we need to encourage them to take the booster” he said.

Rwanda Red Cross' work in the project will also aim at sensitizing parents in regard to why they should have their children aged 5-11 years vaccinated.

"There are is some information circulating that hinders some parents from responding to the children’s vaccination campaigns. A number of children have already been vaccinated, but there is a journey that we need to take to vaccinate more. So, we will be doing sensitization at schools and in communities, so that people allow their children to get vaccinated,” he noted.

In the sensitization work, Rwanda Red Cross will work with partners including local government institutions, Rwanda Biomedical Center, as well as Africa CDC, and so on.

Since 2020, Rwanda Red Cross has been working to support people to cushion the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Here, for example, during the lockdown, the organisation provided support in terms of food and money to families impacted by the economic hardship that resulted from the restrictions.

In addition to this, Rwanda Red Cross has volunteers at various local levels ranging from villages, cells, sectors and districts, who have been playing a role in educating people on the prevention of Covid-19.