COVID-19 vaccines: Delivering hope and emerging stronger from the pandemic

Season 3, episode 3

COVID-19 vaccines: Delivering hope and emerging stronger from the pandemic

In a month filled with historic moments, UNICEF has helped deliver the first round of COVID-19 vaccines through the COVAX Facility in countries around the world. We will bring you into all the action, from Côte d'Ivoire to Nepal and the Democratic Republic of Congo, to hear from those who are on the ground, supporting and following the developments around these COVID-19 vaccine deliveries.

Producers: Priyadarshini Mitra, Victoria Ptashnick

Sound Mix: Chandra Bulucon

Episode Transcript:

[00:00:00.00] [MUSIC PLAYING]

[00:00:03.54] This is an exciting and historic moment for Nigeria as the 4 million vaccines arrive.

[00:00:10.74] The COVID vaccines for Uganda have arrived and are now being transported.

[00:00:15.54] We are celebrating with the government of the Philippines and the Filipino people in this momentous occasion and the arrival of the first batch of COVID-19 vaccines from the COVAX facility.

[00:00:28.53] We have just received the first shipment of COVID-19 vaccine in Sudan, and this is a huge step in curbing the pandemic.

[00:00:35.79] It's a moment that shows the value of global partnership for everyone, for children, a historic moment.

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[00:00:54.24] It truly has been a month filled with historic moments. UNICEF has helped deliver the first round of COVID-19 vaccines through the COVAX facility to countries around the world. We're working to make sure there is equitable access to these vaccines as they reach countries from Cote d'Ivoire to Cambodia, from Jordan to Afghanistan. It fills me with hope that as we speak, UNICEF has delivered more than 30 million COVAX-supported vaccines to over 40 countries and counting.

[00:01:30.66] On this episode of our podcast, we will get close to the action and hear from those who are on the ground, supporting, and following the developments around these COVID-19 vaccine deliveries. I'm David Morley, the president and CEO of UNICEF Canada and your host of the For Every Child podcast.

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[00:02:03.22] Health care workers, teachers, security forces, and vulnerable groups will receive these vaccines in a manner equitable.

[00:02:11.17] The voice you just heard was that of Marc Vincent, the UNICEF representative in Cote d'Ivoire. A fellow Canadian, he joins us now to share his experience. Welcome, Marc.

[00:02:23.44] Hello, David.

[00:02:24.70] Cote d'Ivoire was one of the first countries to receive the COVID-19 vaccine through the COVAX facility, and you were there on the tarmac in Abidjan, watching it happen. Can you take us through what that was like?

[00:02:38.11] Well, it was very exciting obviously. We were very proud that Cote d'Ivoire was among the first countries to receive the COVAX. We met the shipment at the airports, and we were equally pleased to see a very strong turnout not only from the media but also from the International diplomatic community and the government. I think that that level of interest and solidarity with Cote d'Ivoire was really important.

[00:03:07.70] I think also-- I was quite proud of the government because one of the reasons why we were able to get the vaccine-- we were on the first among the list-- was because the government had really reacted quickly to do all of the administrative steps necessary to receive it. So in terms of regulating it, to receive authorization to use it in Cote d'Ivoire, to receive import authorization, and so forth. So that was largely because they really responded quickly.

[00:03:33.94] So it was an exciting-- it was an exciting day. Our colleagues from the communications were brilliant. They managed to shepherd, if I can put it like that, almost 100 journalists onto the tarmac which wasn't always an easy task, but it was a great day.

[00:03:51.46] Over the past year, how have you seen COVID-19 affect the communities, families, and children you work with in Cote d'Ivoire?

[00:04:00.07] Well, I think, I think-- first of all, the government responded very quickly in March when the first case of COVID was identified. And I think they reacted quickly in terms of closing borders and taking the necessary precautions, which was good, which meant that the number of cases in Cote d'Ivoire up until now is about 30,000 cases and just over 200 deaths. So I think we didn't see as many cases as in neighboring countries.

[00:04:32.59] However, having said that, there was a very strong impact. And I think what was most profound for me was when the schools closed, and we had almost 5 million children out of school for a period of time. And I think that was very worrisome because we were quite nervous that the kids would lose their whole school year.

[00:04:53.83] I think also seeing some of the street children that were affected by the COVID crisis, I think, was also equally worrisome. I'm very pleased to say that we were able to launch, in both these cases, innovative programs that responded to the needs. So for the kids that were out of school, the 5 million, we were able to launch a digital online learning platform which I think was used to-- almost a million children were able to see it.

[00:05:22.48] But we'll be using that in the future for other-- to advance our country program. In terms of the kids, street kids, we were also able to take them off the streets so that they were obviously less vulnerable but reunite them with their families, which, I think, was a very, very important step forward for us.

[00:05:41.80] I have to say for UNICEF staff, it was also-- it was also tough because with the schools closed, many mothers, single mothers were trying to balance work with responsibilities for their children. And so, that wasn't easy, but they all managed very well. So I'm very proud of the UNICEF team and what they did.

[00:06:06.47] That's so encouraging to hear. What does it mean to Cote d'Ivoire to receive the COVID-19 vaccines? How will it impact the work you do?

[00:06:16.88] Well, obviously the-- receiving the vaccines will enable us and the governments and the population to get over the crisis. But let me say what was really important was that Africa was receiving the vaccines. I think I was really pleased to see that the COVAX mechanism was working and that it wasn't just the wealthy countries that were receiving vaccines, it was also the less-developed countries. And that, I think, was a very important step for COVAX, for UNICEF, or for our partners.

[00:06:51.82] The next stage, of course, is to make sure that we have an efficient campaign, and that means a very strong communications campaign so people understand why they should be taking the vaccine, what it means to protect themselves and their communities and their families.

[00:07:08.08] It will require some effort to get over some initial reticence for the vaccines. There's always a level of questions, I would say, at the beginning of a new vaccination campaign. So we have to make sure that people understand that the vaccines are safe, and that will help communities bounce back.

[00:07:25.32] I hope in nine months from now at the end of this year, we would have really good coverage for vaccines, and we would have seen the economy bounce back. Cote d'Ivoire has experienced, over the last few years, an economic growth rate of about 7%, and then, during COVID, it declined to 1.8%. And clearly, that decline tends to hit the most vulnerable families first. It tends to hit the informal labor market first. And we are definitely hoping that the vaccines will be part of all of the steps necessary to get the economy back up and running again.

[00:08:07.71] Thank you for speaking with us, Marc. We are all hopeful that the COVID-19 vaccines will help bring an end to this pandemic because the longer this pandemic goes on, the more intense its impact on children.

[00:08:24.87] [MUSIC PLAYING]

[00:08:30.34] For that, it's not enough for the vaccines just to reach the countries. They must reach the key target groups who need them. This is why UNICEF is also helping countries to strengthen their cold and supply chains, training health workers, and working with communities to build trust in vaccines.

[00:08:51.85] [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

[00:08:53.05]

[00:08:56.38] This is Jumla, Nepal. The voice you hear is of a local man crouching on the ground on top of a hill, broadcasting an important announcement over a megaphone to the village. He is inviting those over 65 years of age to come to the health post with identification documents to get the COVID-19 vaccine. He warns them to come as soon as possible before it starts to snow.

[00:09:25.47] [MUSIC PLAYING]

[00:09:31.70] Let's hear from Indra Kala Tamang, health officer at UNICEF Nepal, about how she is supporting the delivery of the vaccines that reached Nepal a few weeks ago.

[00:09:44.24] The geography of Nepal is very difficult. Today I'm here at Malika Bota at Jumla. Jumla is one of the remote districts of Karnali province. I came here by road from Kathmandu, Nepal. It took five days to arrive at this place. I again walked around three hours.

[00:10:08.42] [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

[00:10:13.46] I will help the health worker to ensure the quality of vaccine by using proper condition ice pack. Along with this, I will help the health worker to set the vaccination site, maintaining the physical distance, and also properly use the masks during vaccination, and also a proper sanitization of the hand during the vaccination.

[00:10:46.48] Vaccines are being transported by air, by road, and also sometimes it's being transported by porter due to difficult geography of this region. The elderly people will be provided vaccination card. Health worker also maintain the register. And for second dose, health worker will do home visit.

[00:11:13.60] It is efforts like these on the ground that ensure the COVID-19 vaccines reach the last mile and are delivered equitably. From Nepal, let's go to the Democratic Republic of Congo, also among the first countries in Africa to receive the COVID-19 vaccines through the COVAX facility. As the flight carrying the doses arrived in Kinshasa, it brought new hope to a country which has recently overcome Ebola and is now fighting against COVID-19.

[00:11:47.35] Sophie Chavanel is the head of communication for development for UNICEF in the DRC, and she joins us now. Welcome, Sophie.

[00:11:57.49] Thank you. Hi, David.

[00:11:58.75] What impact has the COVID-19 pandemic had on the lives of children in the DRC? And how will these vaccines help mitigate some of that impact?

[00:12:10.57] That is a very good question, and it's an issue I'm very passionate about. COVID-19 has had a lot of collateral impacts on many countries around the world, including DRC where a lot of struggles with many other issues and problematics, limitation and travels, slow down of all sorts of industries, curfews, horrific traffic has had an impact on families, on their income. Many families have lost their incomes for many, many months.

[00:12:55.13] And when you live on your daily income, it's catastrophic. You struggle to get by-- to get food for your children to eat. It's stressed. On top of that, most of children in DRC haven't been in school for a year. It's a very long time, a whole year of education that is lost, that is completely lost.

[00:13:23.80] And you can imagine with the stress, lower-income children at home, it's been very difficult for parents and children alike. UNICEF has seen, and many studies have shown that COVID has had a terrible impact in terms of violence against children in many countries around the world, in DRC included but also in developed countries.

[00:13:55.94] So the impact have been tremendous. Of course, the disease has been hit and has hit-- and hit really hard around the world, but the cultural damage have been catastrophic.

[00:14:10.66] What difference do you think the vaccine will then-- will make?

[00:14:16.93] I am positive. We have received the first batch of vaccine this week actually and starting to vaccine frontline workers, health workers, people over 50 years old, people living with diseases that can be exacerbated by COVID, including diabetes and health-- heart issues.

[00:14:46.33] This said, there's still a long way to go. In a country like DRC where there are almost 90 million people, 1.7 million vaccines is, of course, not enough. There are more to come. But the logistics to get those vaccines to the people who need it the most is complicated.

[00:15:11.05] And this is one of the challenges of DRC. DRC is a country of grand, it's grand territory with a grand population and grand challenges as well which includes roads. Roads are complicated. There's really heavy rainy season going on, and getting the vaccines to the last mile will be a challenge.

[00:15:36.44] Are there lessons that the country learned from the Ebola outbreak that will have affected the response to COVID-19?

[00:15:47.43] Completely. And coming from Cote d'Ivoire as well, I can tell you that many African countries have dealt really well and really quickly with the COVID pandemic. The reason being there were lessons learned. They have dealt with pandemics before. You know, hand-washing stations were put in place really quickly in public spaces and schools.

[00:16:12.63] Sensitization messages started going out. People knew that they had to kind of respect some social distancing. Let's be honest, it's not everywhere. When you live in a village where you basically live outside, it's not the same as in Canada where people are confined inside in their own house. When you live in a village where your toilet is outside your house, and most people work and live outside, you cannot expect people to wear masks or social distance, but they do adapt to their context.

[00:16:44.37] One of the strengths of DRC is it's a community-based network. In DRC, there is a network of what they call a [NON-ENGLISH]. So they're community groups formed of volunteers in communities, and there's close to 20,000 of them here in DRC to the last mile and the really remote villages.

[00:17:12.40] And these people, what they do is they're committed to visit a certain number of families every month, and they go to them, and they make sure the kids are OK, they go to school. They don't have any signs of symptoms of diseases such as Ebola or polio. So these people have been activated straight away when COVID-19 struck to be able to identify those signs again and be able to inform people and get them to go to health centers when was needed.

[00:17:51.51] When the pandemic is over, what do you think will be the key challenges that will face the DRC? What's ahead?

[00:18:05.50] Again, DRC is a country of grand. So the challenges haven't stopped while the COVID-19 pandemic has struck. The challenges are the same. For children as an example, they haven't been in school for a year. But when they do go to school, there are not enough schools. There is not enough classrooms.

[00:18:28.68] So most of the time, classrooms are overcrowded. Children are grouped together, different group age. Really young children will be studying with much older children. As we know, it's not an ideal scenario. When you have a six-year-old, he's not going to have the same maturity of a 10-years-old. He has different interests, and he is somewhere else in life.

[00:18:59.18] Other schools would do a rotation. So children would only come in the morning, and other children would only come in the afternoon. So you see even in normal times, going to school in DRC is difficult. Quality of education is not always there. So these children who have lost a year of their right to education, they're slowly going back to schools.

[00:19:25.01] In some villages, I can tell you they're not back in school. They're not back in school because of insecurity. They are not back in school because it's rainy season, and there's just no more roof on their school. So on top of COVID-19, DRC was already fighting so many challenges-- that COVID-19 sadly was just one of them.

[00:19:49.34] Now I'm hopeful. I'm really hopeful that the next generation, this generation of children and young people that cares, and I see that all across Africa. They're bright. They have hope. They want a different world. We've been talking a lot about we imagining a world, what is it going to look like after COVID-19, and sadly, I haven't seen it much from adults.

[00:20:25.02] But I've seen it much from children and young people. They do care about a better planet. They do question actions we've been taking. They've seen the masks that people have thrown everywhere in school playgrounds, and in their community. What can we do best? Is that the best we can do? And I see it in children in Africa. They do have hope. They do want a better world. And I do believe this change can be led from young people.

[00:20:58.25] So one of the things that-- when you talk about how young people, their reimagining of the future, I feel we're so lucky to be working for UNICEF because we get to work with those children in the hope, and the leadership that they offer us is inspiring, isn't it?

[00:21:23.01] Completely. That's why I do it. And I feel grateful every day. Sometimes I'm tired. This morning, I was exhausted, and I got off bed, and I looked at my child. And she was finally going back to school because I'm a mother too, and it has had an impact on her. We moved in the middle of a pandemic to DRC, a country she doesn't know, and there was no school.

[00:21:46.41] And now she's back in school. She's been for three weeks, I think. And she's so excited, so excited to just play with her friends again and learn. And I do know because she's seen a lot. And she's been to communities with me, and she's met children. And I know she knows she's one of the privileged ones and that she's grateful.

[00:22:12.39] But children are the same everywhere, aren't they? They want to feel they're safe. They want to feel loved. They want to play. They just want to go and play with their friends. And even though they say they don't want to go to school, they do want to go because they want to go and play with their friends. And that's what they should be doing.

[00:22:31.68] Sophie, it's great to talk with you, to know that you're there, that you get the inspiration from everywhere, from your own child and the children you meet in DRC. Thanks. Thanks so much, Sophie, for all you're doing. And please, stay well.

[00:22:51.63] Thank you so much, and I want to take the opportunity to thank everybody back home in Canada. The work we do here would not be possible without the support of everybody else back home. So stay safe.

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[00:23:12.37] As we begin the second year into the COVID-19 pandemic, there's hope and optimism seeing vaccines roll out. We have gone backward across virtually every key measure of childhood during this past year. The number of children who are hungry, isolated, abused, anxious, living in poverty, and forced into marriage has increased.

[00:23:37.09] At the same time, their access to education, socialization, and essential services, including health, nutrition, and protection has decreased. The signs that children will bear the scars of the pandemic for years to come are unmistakable. COVID-19 is a child rights crisis which we need to end as fast as possible.

[00:24:02.68] Follow our work and find out how you can play a role at unicef.ca. With that, we come to the end of our episode. Thank you for listening.

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