Humanly possible: Community engagement on the frontline of vaccine delivery

UKHIH's new online photography exhibition, Humanly possible: Community engagement on the frontline of vaccine delivery will be displayed at the Geneva Health Forum 2024 conference next week (27 -29 May). It highlights the collective action needed to promote the use of vaccines to protect people of all ages against disease.

The striking collection of portraits and stories from Nigeria have been captured by photographer Etinosa Yvonne, showcasing community engagement volunteers in Kano, who tell their personal story of their engagement with the PULSE vaccine programme.

In recent years, there has been increasing recognition of the crucial role of community engagement in the successful delivery of public health interventions in humanitarian settings, including for vaccine delivery.

However, that evidence is fragmentary and has rarely been used as the systematic basis for planning public health interventions.

A new research project, PULSE, supported by the UK Humanitarian Innovation Hub (UKHIH), is working to establish an evidence base and practice network to support community-led vaccine deployment strategies in humanitarian contexts.

PULSE is led by the Geneva Centre of Humanitarian Studies, in partnership with research collaborators: the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Addis Ababa University School of Public Health (Ethiopia), and Childcare and Wellness Clinics (Nigeria). We're working closely with our operational partners, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), and the National Societies of Ethiopia and Nigeria.