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FROM THE FIELD: Going the extra mile with vaccines

A vaccine carrier is carefully transported across a river in India. It’s a delicate process - the vaccines need to be kept cold, even in tropical parts of the world.
© UNICEF
A vaccine carrier is carefully transported across a river in India. It’s a delicate process - the vaccines need to be kept cold, even in tropical parts of the world.

FROM THE FIELD: Going the extra mile with vaccines

Health

While the medical world rushes to develop an effective and safe vaccine for the deadly coronavirus which is sweeping across the planet, millions of doses of other life-saving immunizations against other diseases, continue to be delivered by the United Nations - albeit at a somewhat slower pace.

Najeeba has been working for years as a health worker in north-east Afghanistan. Community leaders like her make all the difference when myth and misinformation stop children being vaccinated. (April 2004).
© UNICEF/Lana Slezic | Najeeba Ahmadjan travels uphill on a donkey to reach vaccination sites at remote villages in Faizabad, north-east Afghanistan, during the first round of Maternal and Neo-natal Tetanus (MNT) vaccination. (April 2004). ​​​​​​​

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) backs vaccination programmes in over 95 countries with the support of partners and through the “sheer determination” of volunteers. 

They have so far reached around 45 per cent of the world’s young children.

And they have made the journey to some of the remotest parts of the globe in often unconventional ways.

Read more here about how health workers are going the extra mile to ensure the safety of young people.

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