Vaccination for every child, everywhere.
Giving every child in Mali access to routine vaccination, every year.
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“Wherever we go, I make it my duty to comply with my child’s vaccination schedule. I know how important it is for her health,” confides Khadeija Chadely, 27, as she queues to immunize her 8-month-old daughter, Lalla.
Today is vaccination day at the community health center located in downtown Timbuktu. Khadeija has been living in the city again for a few weeks. She and her family often travel between Algeria and Mali. Whenever they stay in a location during the trip, the young mother makes sure to find a health center so as not to miss any vaccination appointments for her daughter or her two other children.
If Khadeija and members of her community can follow the vaccination schedule for their children wherever they are in Mali, it is because health facilities are regularly and sufficiently supplied for routine vaccination for the hundreds of thousands of children born and growing up in the country. Vaccines are transported from the national to regional depots, to district depots, and then to the most remote health centers in the country. They are transported under optimal temperature conditions so that each dose retains its qualities and provides the necessary immunity for every child.
In 2023, nearly 23,000,000 doses of vaccine were administered to children aged 0 to 5 thanks to the partnership between UNICEF, the Malian government and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.
More than 950,000 children received at least one dose of the vaccine scheduled in the vaccination calendar. Between 2014 and 2023, 2,100 refrigerators and 20 freezers were donated to the Malian Government to strengthen and optimize the vaccine cold chain.
Vaccine doses against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, Hepatitis B, poliomyelitis, and measles contribute to routine vaccination. Since the declaration of the poliomyelitis epidemic, additional vaccination activities through poliomyelitis response campaigns are also organized. Such activities were made possible thanks to the involvement of all stakeholders in vaccination despite a tense security context in Kidal, Ménaka, Gao and Tombouctou regions in 2023.
