Brave nurse defies odds to give children measles vaccine

Ali Ibren Maalim giving Ruben vaccine to a child on a donkey cart in Elram village, Mandera county on December 16, 2022. [Ibrahim Adan, Standard]

Every morning since the measles vaccination exercise was launched eight days ago, Ali Ibren efforts stand out.

A nursing officer at a dispensary along the Kenya-Somali border, he has been trekking several kilometres daily to ensure no child misses the important dose during the ongoing vaccination campaign.

Clutching vaccination kits and some hanging on his shoulder, Ibren trudges along the dusty villages most of which had been cut off from the rest of Mandera County.

Some of the regions do not even have essential government services such as health and education due to the threats posed by the Somali militant group, al-Shabab.

When the Saturday Standard caught up with him last Thursday morning, Ibren had already done over 400 kilometres since the vaccination programme began.

We found him at El-Ram, a sleepy village avoided by many after it suffered some of the most brutal attacks targeting government officials by the militant group.

The village is located on the outskirts of Kotulo Sub-county, Mandera South Constituency.

"It's a risky endeavour working along these border villages considering the potential threats posed by al-Shabab. But I can't abandon our children," he said

"This is a crucial vaccine that our children shouldn't miss, whatever the threat on my life will be," he added, with his shirt drenched in sweat from walking for miles under the scorching sun.

His days start at around 6 am.

"Every day I start early and finish late in the evening, however, sometimes I work late into the night when I meet families that are planning to move with their livestock the following morning," he said

He noted that due to the fears of improvised explosive devices and threats of insecurity, he is forced to walk to reach some of the villages within the area.

"Some days I trek for over five kilometres to ensure a good number of children are covered. Footing in most parts of these villages isn't for the faint-hearted because of the ravaging drought coupled with bad terrain and insecurity threats," he said.

With the support of a community health volunteer, he is tasked to cover the three border villages falling under his jurisdiction which have over 4,000 residents.

He observed that the negative attitudes to all sorts of vaccination by the community in those far-flung villages were complicating his already difficult working environment noting that he was taking a lot of time convincing the community to accept the vaccine.

"These are communities that are inaccessible and because of this, the many campaign messages done by both the county and national government haven't filtered down to them. So I have to explain to them the importance of the vaccine to their children before they cooperate with us." he added.

The vaccination campaign started on December 9 and will run until Monday 19.

The officer said other challenges are the potential risk of having the ice cubes meant to maintain the required temperature for the drugs melting down under the scorching sun.

However, he noted this is addressed by carrying sufficient ice cubes in different coolers provided by the county government.

With repeated threats to health workers and teachers in some of the outskirt border village in Mandera, most essential facilitates have either remained with a few personnel or shut down altogether.

The Mandera County health director Abdi Maalim said the county has a target of vaccinating 155,000 children aged between nine months to five years by the end of the exercise.

He said to circumvent the challenges posed by the lack of facilities to maintain the required temperature for the vaccines the drugs are preserved at the health centres in the nearby towns and reached out to the people during the day.

Mandera County earlier in the year reported a measles outbreak after 140 children were infected with the disease.

He added that they are confident they will surpass their target and ensure every child below five years gets vaccinated before the end of the exercise.