By Dolly Dupe and Ermi Ndoen
Eleven-year old Audhyni closed her tiny eyes as her round face contorted with terror. The Grade Six student was seconds away from receiving the life-saving measles and rubella (MR) vaccine as part of the Indonesian Government’s mass vaccination campaign against MR.
A teacher who sat next to Audhyni wrapped her arms around her waist for comfort.
But as soon as the nurse was done with the injection; a sense of relief lifted Audhyni’s spirit.
“It’s not painful at all,” she said smiling. “It felt like an ant was biting me,” she added to the laugh of teachers and other students who had thronged the classroom in Kupang International Montessori School (KIMS), in the provincial capital of Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT).
Within minutes Audhyni rushed to a nearby wall and dipped her hands into a bucket of paint. She then pressed them firmly onto the wall – leaving behind colourful handprints on the white background.
“I am a hero now - We are the heroes of Rubella”, she said with pride, showing her painted hands to her friends and teachers.
Lying in the southeast side of Indonesia, NTT is one of the 28 provinces where phase 2 of the vaccination campaign is taking place, in August and September 2018. More than 1.7 million children in NTT Province are being targeted in this mass immunization drive, including Audhyni and her friends.
The campaign to vaccinate all children from measles and rubella began last year in six provinces of the island of Java. Phase 1 was a huge success, with all 35 million children receiving the life-saving vaccines. Once phase 2 is completed this year, around 67 million Indonesians are expected to be vaccinated against measles and rubella.
MR vaccines not only protect children developing measles and rubella themselves, but also protect their future children from congenital defects caused by the rubella virus during pregnancy. These include hearing problems, visual impairment, cardiac abnormalities and intellectual disabilities. According to WHO, Indonesia was one of the top ten countries in the world with the most number of measles incidents as of 2015.
The students, teachers and parents of KIMS school were all very eager to take part in the vaccination drive, having heard about the danger of measles and rubella. “We want to support the MR Campaign because it is a programme from the Government, and we want Indonesian children, especially our own children to be free from measles and rubella”, said Ms Dolly, the school principal.
“When KIMS got the letter from the puskesmas [Health Centre], we forwarded it [to the parents],” she said “From the day we received the letter, we started sharing information with our students and answering any questions from them”.
To facilitate information sharing, the school then set up a group discussion on whatsapp. “We tried to answer all the parents’ questions. We only shared information from trusted media and we encouraged them to join their children during the vaccination”.
Dolly and her team of teachers also went a step further to help encourage the students to have fun during what might otherwise be a scary time. “We used handprints [to make a] ‘Heroes Wall’ as appreciation for their fearlessness in facing the injection. It was also a way to distract them from their pain and, last but not least, we wanted to have fun on that day, which happened to fall on Friday, traditionally our fun activities’ day.”
Dolly and the other teachers used the slogan ‘We are Rubella’s Heroes’ as their school’s statement to encourage parents, children and their communities to join the MR campaign.
“As we can see from the pictures, even though the kids were terrified, they took the shot and after a couple of minutes they were eager to do the handprinting and forgot about the pain!”
The fun activities have even prompted other students who missed the vaccination due to ill health and other reasons, to ask for a follow up visit so they can put their handprints on the wall too.
Indeed, the children are now the real MR heroes.
 |
| Rubella Heroes Wall at KIMS school. (C) UNICEF Indonesia/2018/Tc.Imel |
Eleven-year old Audhyni closed her tiny eyes as her round face contorted with terror. The Grade Six student was seconds away from receiving the life-saving measles and rubella (MR) vaccine as part of the Indonesian Government’s mass vaccination campaign against MR.
A teacher who sat next to Audhyni wrapped her arms around her waist for comfort.
But as soon as the nurse was done with the injection; a sense of relief lifted Audhyni’s spirit.
“It’s not painful at all,” she said smiling. “It felt like an ant was biting me,” she added to the laugh of teachers and other students who had thronged the classroom in Kupang International Montessori School (KIMS), in the provincial capital of Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT).
Within minutes Audhyni rushed to a nearby wall and dipped her hands into a bucket of paint. She then pressed them firmly onto the wall – leaving behind colourful handprints on the white background.
“I am a hero now - We are the heroes of Rubella”, she said with pride, showing her painted hands to her friends and teachers.
 |
| Once vaccinated, the children put a triumphant handprint on the wall. (C) UNICEF Indonesia/2018/Brigitta De Rosari |
Lying in the southeast side of Indonesia, NTT is one of the 28 provinces where phase 2 of the vaccination campaign is taking place, in August and September 2018. More than 1.7 million children in NTT Province are being targeted in this mass immunization drive, including Audhyni and her friends.
The campaign to vaccinate all children from measles and rubella began last year in six provinces of the island of Java. Phase 1 was a huge success, with all 35 million children receiving the life-saving vaccines. Once phase 2 is completed this year, around 67 million Indonesians are expected to be vaccinated against measles and rubella.
MR vaccines not only protect children developing measles and rubella themselves, but also protect their future children from congenital defects caused by the rubella virus during pregnancy. These include hearing problems, visual impairment, cardiac abnormalities and intellectual disabilities. According to WHO, Indonesia was one of the top ten countries in the world with the most number of measles incidents as of 2015.
The students, teachers and parents of KIMS school were all very eager to take part in the vaccination drive, having heard about the danger of measles and rubella. “We want to support the MR Campaign because it is a programme from the Government, and we want Indonesian children, especially our own children to be free from measles and rubella”, said Ms Dolly, the school principal.
“When KIMS got the letter from the puskesmas [Health Centre], we forwarded it [to the parents],” she said “From the day we received the letter, we started sharing information with our students and answering any questions from them”.
To facilitate information sharing, the school then set up a group discussion on whatsapp. “We tried to answer all the parents’ questions. We only shared information from trusted media and we encouraged them to join their children during the vaccination”.
Dolly and her team of teachers also went a step further to help encourage the students to have fun during what might otherwise be a scary time. “We used handprints [to make a] ‘Heroes Wall’ as appreciation for their fearlessness in facing the injection. It was also a way to distract them from their pain and, last but not least, we wanted to have fun on that day, which happened to fall on Friday, traditionally our fun activities’ day.”
Dolly and the other teachers used the slogan ‘We are Rubella’s Heroes’ as their school’s statement to encourage parents, children and their communities to join the MR campaign.
 |
| (C) UNICEF Indonesia/2018/Tc. Vanny |
“As we can see from the pictures, even though the kids were terrified, they took the shot and after a couple of minutes they were eager to do the handprinting and forgot about the pain!”
The fun activities have even prompted other students who missed the vaccination due to ill health and other reasons, to ask for a follow up visit so they can put their handprints on the wall too.
Indeed, the children are now the real MR heroes.
