Africa CDC Launches its $3 Million Fund for the Saving Lives Initiative in Kenya
In order to speed up the COVID-19 vaccine, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), in collaboration with the Mastercard Foundation, has started the country implementation of the Saving Lives and Livelihoods (SLL) program in Kenya.
Only 32% of the adult population is fully immunized, and the country is currently facing the sixth wave of COVID-19 infection at the time of the immunization drive.
With a $1.5 billion partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, the Africa CDC Saving Lives and Livelihoods initiative was established in June 2021 with the goal of purchasing COVID-19 vaccines for at least 65 million people and assisting in their distribution to millions of people throughout the continent.
The fund has given a total of $ 3 million to begin the implementation in Kenya.
In order to increase the uptake of the COVID-19 vaccination, the project will coordinate the efforts of the government, the African CDC, and other partners. To help Kenya meet its COVID-19 immunization goal, the implementation campaign will concentrate on Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE), vaccine capacity, logistics, and vaccine surveillance.
“We are extremely honored to launch the country implementation of Saving Lives and Livelihoods in Kenya by Africa CDC in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation today, as we launch the mass vaccination campaign by the Government of Kenya,” said Dr. Achamyelesh Debela, Coordinator of the Africa CDC Eastern Africa Regional Coordinating Centre.
In order to provide this support, the Ministry of Health and the Saving Lives and Livelihoods initiative have set a goal of more than 8,000 outreach initiatives, strengthened 672 COVID-19 vaccination centers, and vaccinated more than 1 million people in chosen counties within a year.
Previously, the Urgent Support program for Kenya’s Saving Lives and Livelihoods initiative and the pooled fund contributed a total of $1.4 million to administer 286,822 COVID-19 vaccines, train 5,544 vaccine administers, 2,638 data and records staff, and 2,850 community health volunteers, and deploy mobile vaccination teams in five counties.
The main objective of the Saving Lives and Livelihoods program, which the Africa CDC is implementing in collaboration with the Mastercard Foundation, is to hasten the vaccination of 70 percent of the continent’s population by the end of 2022.
