Primary Schools in Pakistan Partner with USAID Project to Vaccinate 1 Million Children against COVID-19

Zahida Iqbal is the principal of Madina Public School in Multan District, a lower-income neighborhood in Pakistan’s Punjab Province. Each day, 1,035 students in grades 1–10 make their way to Madina for classes. One day in September 2022, in addition to their teachers and administrators, the students were greeted by department of health workers offering COVID-19 vaccination.

Between August and November 2022, the USAID-funded Integrated Health Systems Strengthening and Service Delivery (IHSS-SD) Activity, implemented by JSI, partnered with the Government of Pakistan to vaccinate 5–11-year-olds against COVID-19. The campaign was implemented in five districts of Punjab, eight districts of Sindh, and the Islamabad Capital Territory, all Activity priority areas with high rates of COVID-19.

The Activity provided financial and logistical support to obtain vaccines and medical supplies, and to staff and operationalize the campaign in schools, religious seminaries (madrassas), and informal educational settings. Mobile outreach teams provided vaccines for children who could not access those places.

Multan, home to nearly two million people, is Pakistan’s seventh-largest city and the major cultural, religious, and economic center of southern Punjab. Over 1,000 government schools in Multan, including Madina, participated in the campaign. School administrators worked closely with the IHSS-SD team, the Punjab Department of Education, and the Department of Primary & Secondary Health to discuss the benefits of COVID-19 vaccination with teachers, parents, and children. The IHSS-SD team and partners vaccinated all 530 students in the priority age group at Madina—more than any other institution involved in the campaign.

Vaccinating children ages 5–11 is challenging because of cultural practices, and limited literacy, vaccine awareness, and access to health care. By connecting health workers to their schools and wider communities, educators like Principal Iqbal are helping to mitigate these challenges.

“Before the start of the campaign, staff from the department of health visited our school to share information about COVID-19 pediatric vaccination,” said Principal Iqbal. “On vaccination day, two staff from the department of health counseled parents and children to ensure their questions were answered.” All parents consented for their children to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

By the end of the campaign, more than 1.5 million children in Multan District—96 percent of those that were eligible—had been vaccinated. “I am proud that our school facilitated free COVID-19 vaccinations,” said Principal Iqbal.