UN stands with country in crisis.

A quiet day in the heart of Apia, as the country shuts down for two days to carry out the measles mass vaccination campaign.

Over 100 teams made up of public servants, private sector volunteers, local and international nurses moved from village to village and door to door, to provide vaccination for those who have not been vaccinated so that they are protected from measles and to break the spread of this deadly disease.

At the end of day one, the teams managed to vaccinate over 13,000 people as recorded on the Immunisation Data Portal which enabled real time monitoring of the mass vaccination.

The portal was set up by Skyeye, a local company that specializes in IT solutions in collaboration with the Samoa Information Technology Association (SITA), mobile and internet providers, and with the support of the United Nations.

The UN  Resident Coordinator, Ms Simona Marinescu who joined the Prime Minister of Samoa, Hon. Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, the Minister of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology,  Hon. Afamasaga Rico Tupai and the team managing the portal, explained that the portal allows the vaccination teams to record live in real time,  people who got vaccinated per age group, by village and district, by gender and other details to build a records management system for vaccination in the future.

The need to strengthen the generation and management of vaccination records is one area identified by the Government of Samoa as a gap in national efforts to monitor and respond to the measles outbreak, and the UN will provide support for this system and other activities, under the USD 1.5 million granted to the UN from the Central Emergency Relief Fund to support national response activities.

The 2 day mass vaccination campaign is complimented by the community advocacy and engagement campaign led by the Ministry of Women Community and Social Development in close collaboration with the Ministry of Health.

Thirty teams of public servants and volunteer are also out in the communities to spread messages about vaccination, hygiene, caring for measles patients and preventing measles infection. Equally important are messages on reproductive health – as well as options for women of reproductive age receiving vaccinations. The teams are also trained on psychosocial first aid initiatives to help families that are dealing with the loss of a loved one due to measles.

Over WST 500,000 was pooled together from various UN agencies including the WHO, UNFPA, UNDP, UN Women and the UN Resident Coordinators Office to support the MWCSD in delivering this campaign.

Prior to the outbreak and since the start of the outbreak, the UN through WHO and UNICEF has also been working closely alongside the Ministry of Health to provide technical, operational and financial support in addition to medical supplies.

And as the country moves into the second day of the mass vaccination, the Government with the support of the UN will launch the national response and recovery appeal that would identify  the shortage in resources that are urgently needed to respond to the epidemic and to better prepare the country for recovery.

The Appeal will be launched by the Prime Minister of Samoa, Honorable Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi on behalf of the people of Samoa.