Leading an indigenous community towards COVID-19 immunity
UNICEF and partners help Ati tribal leaders in Guimaras become trusted vaccine advocates
Guimaras, 18 May 2023 – The COVID-19 pandemic has aggravated existing inequalities experienced by one of the most vulnerable populations in the country: the indigenous peoples.
To survive, the Ati, one of the biggest indigenous peoples groups in Jordan, a municipality in the province of Guimaras, depend on manual labor such as hunting, farming, charcoal-making, and weaving. Their village, Sitio Kati-Kati, is situated high in the mountains and a 30-minute ride away from the town proper, traversing rough, bumpy, sometimes muddy dirt roads.
When the pandemic hit, it placed not only health, but also millions of livelihoods at risk, and the Ati people were not spared. Without any other source of income and food on the table, the community suffered.
As prominent figures of authority and influence in their community, Ati tribal leaders believe that it is their responsibility to make sure that their members are safe, healthy, and able to provide for their families. However, fulfilling this responsibility became tremendously challenging when they had to contend with their own hesitancies to receive the COVID-19 vaccines.
As prominent figures of authority and influence in their community, Ati tribal leaders believe that it is their responsibility to make sure that their members are safe, healthy, and able to provide for their families.
Helping community leaders overcome their hesitancies
When the COVID-19 vaccination was rolled out in Sitio Kati-Kati, the rapid spread of misinformation significantly contributed to the Ati community’s refusal to receive the vaccines. The Ati people rely mainly on their leaders, family members, and neighbors for information, and at times on local radio and social media. False and unverified information and stories that circulated in the community such as deaths associated with vaccination and vaccines turning people into zombies, among others, further triggered their existing fears and hesitancy towards vaccination. This added to the already overwhelming practical barriers preventing them from getting the vaccines, such as the absence of transportation to get to the vaccination sites and the pressure to miss a day of work just to get the jab.
Perla Moreno, an Ati leader and a member of the tribal council, shared these fears, concerns, and hesitations with their community members.
The Ati people rely mainly on their leaders, family members, and neighbors for information, and at times on local radio and social media.
“When the vaccines arrived, we did not know much about it, so we were afraid. We feared injection, as well as the information spreading about how it can harm us, turn us into zombies,” shares Perla.
Perla also mentioned that they immediately resort to use of herbal medicines for any type of illness, including symptoms of COVID-19, and vaccination is considered an unusual health practice among community members. “We also believe that we can be protected if we use an amulet called panaming,” she adds.
Knowing the key role of local leaders in making decisions on health conditions, especially in a tightly knit community, UNICEF, with the support of the Australian Government and in partnership with Relief International, worked to help tribal leaders overcome their hesitancies, and instead become their community’s trusted vaccine advocates.
Partnering with the municipal government of Jordan and the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, UNICEF and Relief International conducted a series of dialogues and consultative meetings with the Ati tribal council to identify barriers, as well as possible enablers to COVID-19 vaccination, and co-create solutions to address these barriers. These dialogues also highlighted the role of tribal leaders in health promotion and advocating for tested and reliable health interventions such as vaccination.
UNICEF, with the support of the Australian Government and in partnership with Relief International, worked to help tribal leaders overcome their hesitancies, and instead become their community’s trusted vaccine advocates.
Not only did the consultations help get Perla and the other tribal leaders vaccinated, the dialogues also successfully drew the municipal government’s support in addressing practical concerns by providing transportation support and mobile vaccination services for the Ati community.
“We finally understood the importance and effectiveness of vaccines, as well as our role in making sure that our community also understands how vaccination can keep all of us safe,” says Perla as she thanks the Australian Government, UNICEF, and Relief International for the support.
“We finally understood the importance and effectiveness of vaccines, as well as our role in making sure that our community also understands how vaccination can keep all of us safe,”
Tribal leaders as vaccine champions
Now more empowered and informed, Ati tribal leaders actively partnered with the municipal government and worked with social mobilizers from UNICEF and Relief International in vaccine promotion and health education sessions for their community members. They led group learning sessions in Karay-a, the language spoken by the Ati people.
The support of the Australian Government and the partnership of UNICEF and Relief International in Guimaras, including Sitio Kati-Kati, were instrumental in helping the provincial government reach its target when a whopping 74 percent of the eligible population took the jab during the National Vaccination Days, a three-day nationwide vaccination drive held in November 2021.
In Sitio Kati-Kati alone, COVID-19 vaccination coverage increased from 6.8 percent to 77 percent of the total eligible population after an intensive mobilization of tribal leaders and other Ati community members to increase demand for vaccination.
In Sitio Kati-Kati alone, COVID-19 vaccination coverage increased from 6.8 percent to 77 percent of the total eligible population after an intensive mobilization of tribal leaders and other Ati community members to increase demand for vaccination.
Aside from engaging local leaders, mobilizing communities and partners, and awareness-raising, UNICEF and Relief International also train barangay health workers on risk communication and community engagement, regularly monitor feedback, questions, and concerns from communities, and support partner local governments in planning for demand generation activities to increase COVID-19 vaccination uptake in areas they support, including the province of Guimaras.
