Vaccination Rallies at Fort Saint Michel Health Center Continue to Immunize Community Members

On September 27th 2021 Konbit Sante and our longtime partner in Haiti, Fort Saint Michel (FSM) Health Center coordinated a vaccination rally for local residents in the Cap-Haitien Community of Fort Saint Michel. This event was part of a larger series of over 400 annual public health rallies organized by community health agents and their managers and supervisors. These rallies vaccinate the public against a number of diseases and provide educational resources on key health topics such as sanitation and hygiene.

This particular rally lasted for several hours and was the result of multiple days of planning and organization. In total the rally served around 50 to 100 people from the area by offering immunizations for measles, influenza, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, tuberculosis, polio, and hepatitis among other diseases.

There are challenges that arise with organizing an event of this nature and scale. One such challenge is the high fuel prices, at this time, which increase the transportation costs. Hence, it further impacts the transportation and distribution of supplies needed for the rallies. Nevertheless, the importance of the work being accomplished at these rallies certainly justifies the team’s efforts.

When speaking with Josaime Clotilde St Jean, the Community Health Program Manager for Konbit Sante, she stressed the importance of vaccinations in combating viral and bacterial diseases. While this message has become increasingly relevant to everyone across the globe recently due to the pandemic, it is worth recognizing its particular application to our public health work in Haiti on a regular basis.

As the year comes to an end, organization of the rallies will come to a halt. When 2022 begins, there will be more rallies and more patients to be immunized all over Cap-Haitien.