Byline: Perrykent Nkole
In May 2022, our Ports2Arms team travelled to Ngodwana in South Africa’s Mpumalanga province.
The purpose of our trip, which was supported by the South African Medical Research Council and Department of Science and Innovation (DSI), was to facilitate a Ports2Arms pilot project in the province. Limpopo and Gauteng would get their own pilot projects too.
Ports2Arms is a project that uses “community-led monitoring” to track what could be harming or helping people access information about COVID-19, or medical tools such as tests, treatment or vaccines.
The health non-profit North Star Alliance was in charge of the P2A pilot in Mpumalanga. They’re experts in getting important health services such as HIV testing and treatment to places near country borders, like Ngodwana, where there are few government services but where the thoroughfare of truckers leads to informal trade and sex work.
The North Star Alliance’s job was to document the specific barriers and enablers that could be having an impact (whether negative or positive) on people’s openness to COVID-19 treatments and testing.
They did this between 1 February and the middle of April 2023. At this stage in South Africa’s pandemic response, there was little momentum left for the health department’s vaccination drive. The media was already focussing on the aftermath of the pandemic, such as unemployment.
Still, the North Star Alliance could see that misinformation about COVID-19 jabs had been damaging for the Ngodwana community.
A rumour that the vaccine had caused someone’s arm to swell up had spread across the province. Many people the North Star Alliance spoke with mentioned this story as the reason they weren’t interested in getting vaccinated against COVID.
Once the North Star Alliance found this problem, the next step was to share any information they find with communities, civil society organisations and other community-based organisations, who would then be able to use the information to shape their advocacy about health systems strengthening and service access
“Co-creation” is one of our most important values at the African Alliance.
In short, it means that the Ngodwana community was part of the information gathering process and they could also decide what they wanted to do with the information.
So, a North Star Alliance team (made up of peer educators, community health workers, lay counsellors and a nurse), went into the Bhamjee, Ngodwana and Elandshoek areas to let people know that they would be hosting a half-day community event on 6 September where people could get food, health services, and information about the COVID-19 vaccines.
During the recruitment drive, 72 people said they were interested in attending. These people were either unvaccinated, or they’d only had one jab and needed a booster.
On the day, people were welcomed by North Star Alliance staff whom they knew well and who spoke their language. A local DJ put his musical stamp on the gathering too. Soon people were dancing.
A master of ceremonies from the The North Star Alliance quizzed those gathered on their COVID knowledge and rewarded correct answers with gift bags.
Mpumalanga’s provincial health department was there as well, and people could get information about COVID vaccines and other health services.They could also get vaccinated if they wanted to.
The five-hour event was attended by 27 out of the 72 people who initially said they were keen. All of them opted to get a jab (some were boosters).
At the end of the day, the African Alliance awarded the North Star Alliance with an award for their work in the Ngodwana, and the community members said they felt proud of this recognition as well.
We see it as a testament to the power of completely community-led initiatives.
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