Island spirit prevails as vaccinations finally arrive

Can you imagine your child without any immunizations? They would be even more vulnerable to a range of preventable diseases such as measles, rubella, polio, tetanus, diphtheria, viral diarrhea and more? Early this year, across the Hinako Islands, there was outbreak of measles and it spread rapidly from Bawa to Asu. Children had not been immunised. Indeed until June of this year the children of Hinako Islands had not received any vaccinations since the March 2005 earthquake.

Since the 2005 earthquake the communities of the Hinako suffered more than most. The earthquake lifted the islands by up to 3 meters, raising the majority of wells above the water table, while saline intrusion of sea water contaminated other wells. This not only severally disrupted access to fresh water but also badly affected coconut production, the only livelihood on the islands apart from fishing. This led to caused a collapse of the local economy and, with offers of reconstructed houses from aid agencies on the main land of Nias, many islanders choose to forgo their island ways and try a new life on Nias. For those that remained life has slowly found a rhythm again but basic services have remained in a very poor state.

The Care Groups established under the Community Based Health Program have started to fill two gaps; providing basic health skills and rebuilding the social fabric of the communities. Firstly the provision of knowledge and skills to practice healthy lifestyles is helping ensuring their children don’t succumb to preventable illnesses. The reduction of open defecation, proper hand washing, better cooking practices and exclusive breastfeeding are all leading to reduced occurrences of diarrhea infection in children. Nutrition gardens are boosting children’s nutrition levels by ensuring basic vegetables are available at the doorstep of homes. But despite these advances, vaccinations remained a two hour boat ride away in the health centre in Sirombu, on mainland Nias.

In May SurfAid commenced a Posyandu revitalization drive across Nias and the Hinako Islands. SurfAid staff educated the Care Group, Pustu (health post) officer and community stakeholders on the Posyandu service provided by the government. It was shocking to reveal the lack of understanding of their rights, but also the lack of understanding of their responsibilities to organize and call for Posyandu.

Staff explained how Posyandu must be for the people, from the people, by the people and that revitalization started with the community taking ownership and leadership in managing Posyandu. SurfAid shared experiences from across Nias and encouraged the community to go and make an official request for immunization from the Puskesmas.

Surf Aid worked with the community to prepare request letters for Puskesmas and helped compile the data of all children under five from the islands. SurfAid also helped build relationships between health staff and stakeholders at village level, and a few weeks later the Puskesmas agreed to provide immunizations, but required the islanders to collect the vaccination and transport themselves. The time came and a day before the Posyandu was to be held on the island, Amapira, the islands’ Health Post officer set of with the SurfAid staff to collect the vaccinations. As all good stories go, there was a twist. When they arrived at the Health Centre they found that the head had left the area and the vaccination chest was locked and no one else had a key. When word got back to the islands there was dreadful disappointment and frustration as many mothers had traveled from the other islands to the Posyandu location. In true island spirit they rallied on and the following month every thing was prepared again, and this time vaccinations were delivered. For the first time in three years the islands’ children received their due vaccinations.

Hinako archipelago consists of 8 islands. SurfAid is supporting Care Groups on the 4 main islands; Hinako, Bawasawa, Simana and Asu. Logistical and budgetary challenges to ensure regular vaccinations to the islands remain and SurfAid is continuing to work with Health staff and communities to try find ways to sustainable overcome the these challenges.