Following issues of The Double Loop focusing on Movement for Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030) leaders from Senegal (Wasnam Faye) and Democratic Republic of Congo (Franck Monga), this issue of The Double Loop takes us to Argentina to meet up with another Movement leader: María Monzón
Faced with a demand challenge – lack of motivation to seek services in a local slum – María Fernanda Monzón was able to draw inspiration from the experiences of both colleagues where she works and those she met through the Movement for Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030). María's commitment to peer networking is helping her represent frontline immunization professionals on an IA2030 Working Group.
Your experience and insights help other members of the Movement for IA2030. Click on the link at the end of each section to share:
If you are a donor, partner, or researcher interested in these insights, we encourage you to share your thoughts or write directly to Ian Steed, Insights Unit Editor.
What are the challenges you have faced where the support you were getting from your organisation was not enough? What have you learned from colleagues in immunization in other countries? How did they support you? What worked - or did not work?
[CLICK HERE TO SHARE YOUR STORY](https://tglf.typeform.com/to/HQsrzMOY#topic=My+experience+of+connecting+with+immunization+colleagues+in+other+contexts.+What+was+the+context?+Who+was+the+colleague?+How+did+they+help+you?+What+was+the+result?)
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“I run a primary health centre in Corrientes, a city of about 350,000 people in the northeast of Argentina. I also teach at the local university and act as the general coordinator at the municipal level of maternal and child health services. I have been part of the TGLF family since 2019 and have greatly appreciated the chance to hear stories from people working in a wide range of settings. In January 2023, I was invited to join the IA2030 Working Group for Strategic Priority 1, immunization programmes for primary healthcare and universal health coverage. I hope the contacts I have made through the Movement for Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030) and the experiences I have heard will enable me to provide helpful input from the perspective of someone who delivers vaccines as part of their daily work.
“I am a paediatrician by background and run the Dr Santiago Lorenzo primary healthcare centre in my city. There are 36 such centres in the city and ours is one of the largest, offering a wide range of primary healthcare and specialist services. We serve a population of more than 7000 people.”
“One of our major challenges is achieving high rates of coverage in the city’s slum areas, including Costa Esperanza, which is right on our doorstep. It consists of about 500 high-density homes with no running water or sewage systems. Most of the inhabitants survive on government welfare payments and about half receive a monthly universal assignation per child (UAC).”
“One of our biggest problems is parents from the slum not bringing their children for vaccinations. The health centre is only at most 700 metres from the slum so we don’t think this is an accessibility issue. All the vaccines are free so there are no financial barriers either.”
“In conversations with people who live in the slums, we found that the main problem is that people do not see the need for vaccination. Because we have had fairly good coverage in the past, vaccine-preventable diseases are rare – people are unaware of them and do not see them as a threat. So they are not motivated to bring their children for vaccination.”
“A similar thing has been seen nationally. A big national catch-up campaign was launched late last year and was supposed to last 6 weeks. It keeps getting extended because it cannot reach its coverage targets.”