SBC Works! Partnership with the Inter-Religious Council of Kenya (IRCK) to endorse COVID-19 vaccination and bridge the COVID-19 vaccination gap
Success stories from Eastern and Southern Africa
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A Johns Hopkins COVID-19 Knowledge, Attitudes and Practice (KAP) study carried out in September 2021 revealed that the misconception and misinformation on COVID-19 as well as the inconvenience of COVID-19 vaccination service were the critical barriers to the scale-up of COVID-19 vaccine uptake. Therefore, it is vital to ensure that everyone gets the right information through trusted sources and to bring COVID-19 vaccines to people with convenient service.
Ninety-eight per cent of Kenyans adhere to one faith or another and religious leaders greatly shape the knowledge, attitudes and practices of their congregations as well as social values based on faith teachings. In this regard, UNICEF Kenya partnered with the Inter-Religious Council of Kenya (IRCK), a coalition of all major faith communities in Kenya that mobilizes their joint efforts to address shared concerns through inter-faith dialogues and collaboration. UNICEF Kenya launched a vaccination drive in partnership with the IRCK and MoH to mobilize religious leaders for COVID-19 vaccination uptake in places of worship in December 2021. As a follow-up, a social mobilization campaign was then launched in July 2022 to further influence behaviour change among congregants and the community to scale up vaccine uptake.
April 2023
