COVID-19 Vaccine uptake materials development in Zanzibar

In the efforts to fight against COVID 19 pandemic spread in the country and reduce the risk of new infections, T-MARC Tanzania in partnership with FHI 360 under USAID Tulonge Afya is supporting the Ministry of Health in Zanzibar in developing demand creation materials for COVID-19 Vaccine uptake.

Cognizant of the influence of faith communities on the behaviors of their individual members, the project has engaged faith community leaders in the activity through the development of materials and tools to enhance their engagement with congregations, to address key myths, and misinformation surrounding the COVID-19 vaccine. Therefore, from 4 th to 6 th November 2021 at Zanzibar Island, FHI 360 technical team, worked with faith leaders in the development of materials to address key vaccine strategies that aim at creating awareness on vaccine safety while addressing myths and misconceptions surrounding the vaccine

This creative workshop session aimed at, fostering a common and aligned understanding of COVID 19 vaccine demand creation activities priorities among religious leaders and facilitated the development of SBCC materials for religious leaders.

The developed materials were targeted to key priority groups that will support COVID-19 vaccine demand and accelerate the high uptake of the vaccine. These targeted audiences were

Primary Audiences
Faith leaders both from Christian, Islam, and Hindu religions

Secondary Audiences
Member of the faith communities

The project worked with government counterparts Health Promotion Unit (HPU in Zanzibar) as well the umbrella faith bodies to develop religious leaders print materials such as Posters, brochures, weekly calendars, and guides. These materials will be used by religious leaders to reach the target audience with COVID-19 vaccine-related messages during their congregant and other religious and social gatherings and influence vaccine uptake to all people including vulnerable groups.

T-MARC Tanzania hopes that this partnership with FHI360 will address and meet its core institutional mission which is striving to contribute to the well-being of all people in the health sector, in addition to this initiative more on ground, media, and digital activations campaigns about COVID 19 awareness and promoting vaccine uptake are still ongoing across the country.