The Sultan Foundation for Peace and Development on Sunday commenced training for 200 community-based organisation (CBO)-linked mobilisers on immunisation tracking and accountability in Zamfara State.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the one-day capacity-building workshop is being organised under the Zamfara Tracking and Accountability for Equitable Immunisation (Z-TRACE) Project.

The foundation is collaborating with the Zamfara State Primary Health Care Development Agency.

The project is being funded by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, supported by Mannion Daniels.

Speaking at the opening of the first batch of the training, the programme officer of the foundation, Jamilu Sarkin-Gulbi, said the 200 CBO members were drawn from the seven most affected local government areas of the state.

He said the mobilisers were being trained on tools to work with communities in identifying children under two years who had yet to receive any routine vaccination.

Mr Sarkin-Gulbi explained that the programme was focusing on zero-dose detection, defaulter tracing, IPC, GESI-sensitive engagement, digital reporting, and local government area budget tracking.

He explained that the mobilisers would conduct house-to-house visits to identify, validate and refer zero-dose children and those who had received the first dose of the pentavalent vaccine but failed to complete the required doses.

Mr Sarkin-Gulbi said, “The intervention is targeting 30 per cent of the 269,241 zero-dose children identified in 74 wards across seven local government areas in the state.”

According to him, the mobilisers will be assigned to communities according to the burden of zero-dose and under-immunised children.

He said the mobilisers would also ensure that the identified children were linked with appropriate vaccination centres for necessary immunisation.

The programme officer stressed the importance of accurate digital reporting, noting that mobilisers must properly capture information through the District Health Information System (DHIS) to support government planning and decision-making.

Mr Sarkin-Gulbi said the initiative was particularly important at a time when Zamfara was responding to an outbreak of diphtheria, which had recorded more than 44 fatalities so far.

He said vaccination remained critical to protecting children against vaccine-preventable diseases.

CBOs from Gusau and Tsafe LGAs led the training, followed by Talata Mafara, Anka, Shinkafi, Bakura and Zurmi LGAs.

Mr Sarkin-Gulbi emphasised that the project aimed to reach up to 30 per cent, or 80,000, zero-dose children across seven local government areas by the end of 2027.

Meanwhile, the Zamfara State Health Educator Officer, Aminu Yahaya, urged participants to pay attention to the training and apply what they learned in their communities.

Mr Yahaya said effective community mobilisation and accurate reporting were essential to improving routine immunisation coverage and ensuring that eligible children were reached.

“At the end of the training, the participants are expected to use the tools in identifying zero-dose and under-immunised children and link them with vaccination services,” the coordinator said.

(NAN)