Saude's Triumph After Tragedy
A Mother’s Courage
On a cloudy Thursday morning in September 2023, a team of health workers arrived at Anguwan Kanawa, a remote and marginalized community located more than 7 km from the nearest health facility in Dutsen-Abba Ward of Zaria, Kaduna State. Here they met 30-year-old Saude Sufyanu, a brave young mother, holding a month-old baby girl - Hussaina, patiently waiting to get her vaccinated.
It is usual practice to engage locals while they wait for their turn at suc medical centres, both to sensitize as well as answer questions to address any fears or doubts they may have. During one such interaction, Saude boldly declared “nobody can tell me anything to stop me from getting my baby vaccinated.”
Other women in the queue challenged Saude’s statement, seeking to justify their hesitance and the reason behind their husbands’ orders to ensure they do not accept vaccination.
Saude had lived through every mother’s worst nightmare, the heart wrenching experience of losing not one, but four of her children to such illnesses. She lost three of her babies to measles and all before their second birthday. She had never got them immunized nor questioned her husband’s directive to avoid the vaccination teams whenever they came around.
When she gave birth to her sixth child - a baby girl, she told her husband it was time to give vaccination a chance. The depth of despair Saude was mired in had cauterized her ability to follow orders. She was convinced that the consequence of not vaccinating her children was not the baseless assumption of infertility, it was death. She got her infant immunized and never looked back.
"Just as not vaccinating my babies didn’t stop them from dying, I was sure that vaccination will not kill them.”
By 2025, the outreach team had conducted over 130 visits to various communities and reached over 3,000 ZD children in the ward. With the support of UNICEF and the Kaduna State government, all communities (with the exception of pockets of households), willingly accept the package of integrated services offered, ranging from immunization to ante-natal care, nutrition services and birth registration amongst others.
“She not only lived, she thrives! Even when teething, she only had mild fever. Not once has she been sick enough to make us give up hope,” Saude happily shares her 20-month-old Hussaina’s story.
Today, Saude is a staunch ambassador for vaccination in her community. She encourages the slow but steady demand for health services. She is an ally for health workers & community leaders when addressing issues of vaccine resistance. She willingly shares her story with the hope it serves as a lesson to mothers in similar situations beyond her reach. She is a living testament of how beating desolation can lead to resilience and sprout the seed of change, needed for growth and transformation.
