More than 600 children vaccinated against the COVID-19 in refugee and migrant shelters in Boa Vista, Roraima

Boa Vista, 17 March 2022 – The first cycle of the vaccination campaign against the COVID-19, aimed at refugee and migrant children from Venezuela, resulted in 607 boys and girls vaccinated. The initiative that took place between January 29 and March 7, reached children aged from 5 to 11 years old in 10 shelters of the Operation Welcome (Operação Acolhida) in Boa Vista, Roraima. The purpose of the campaign was to complement the immunization efforts led by the municipality. The second or booster dose was also given to 617 adolescents and adults.

The UNICEF, in partnership with the Municipal Health Department of Boa Vista (SEMSA), ADRA Brasil (Agência Adventista de Desenvolvimento e Recursos Assistenciais), the Brazilian Federal Subcommittee on Reception, and Internalization and the Operation Welcome’s (Operação Acolhida) Humanitarian Logistics Task Force, organized a joint work group to systematize the registration of children, adolescents and their families who had not yet been vaccinated against the COVID-19 or who had not yet taken the booster doses – as in the case of adults.

“All these actors have come together to allow children to be vaccinated in shelters, benefiting not only each one of them, but also the entire community. Our duty is to guarantee that these children, adolescents, and their families can access healthcare”, Ana Spiassi, UNICEF Health and Nutrition Consultant in Roraima, says.

Fourteen professionals were involved in the campaign, including nurses and health and nutrition monitors. In addition to the shelters’ coordinating team, social workers and pedagogues from Súper Panas – UNICEF spaces that offer non-formal education and psychosocial support activities for children and adolescents – also participated. All of them helped engage and mobilize the community, organize queues to register people in the system and debate rounds, where myths and truths about the vaccines were discussed.

Misinformation and the spread of fake news, since the beginning of the pandemic, were factors that also impacted the refugee and migrant population.

“We worked very hard on the communication to make them understand the importance of the vaccination, even more so in a sheltered context, with a high density of people. We participate in the whole process, from searching for children to the immunization stage”, states Colonel Alexandre Henriques Monteiro Ramos, the Director of the Operation Welcome Health Center.

The action also promoted the continuation of the administration of booster doses in adults, integrated with the work of the Boa Vista Municipality at the Basic Health Units (UBS) and temporary vaccination drive-thru stations.

“The municipal government is focused on expanding the vaccination coverage and protecting the population against the COVID-19, among all groups that can be vaccinated. Thus, it is important to ally with all the actions that lead us towards this goal”, Francinete Rodrigues, Health Surveillance Superintendent of the Boa Vista Health Secretariat, says.

Efforts to guarantee vaccination coverage among the refugee and migrant population continue and other cycles of the immunization campaign are scheduled to happen at Boa Vista’s shelters, as a way of supporting the municipal campaign and increasing the immunity coverage across the city.

UNICEF's vaccination initiatives receive funding from the ACT (Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator) and United States’ Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM).

UNICEF and the support for the immunization coverage
Since 2019, UNICEF has deployed health and nutrition teams in Boa Vista, working on a fixed or mobile basis to serve the population in the shelters of the Operation Welcome and in spontaneous occupations in the city. The main objective is to ensure the rapid identification and referral of suspected cases of COVID-19 and the monitoring of vaccination coverage among the migrant and refugee population of Venezuela. In 2021, 20,564 interviews were conducted with 3,102 referrals for medical evaluation as a strategy to ensure rapid control of COVID-19 outbreaks in shelters.

The Fund also supports 23 Basic Health Units (UBS) – with 40 professionals who work to guarantee the provision of healthcare for the Brazilian and Venezuelan community – and assists in the coordination of municipal-government led immunization efforts, by hiring a professional that organizes all stages of release and control of the immunobiologicals against the COVID-19.