Spent the day in Marracuene district today to do some monitoring of the National Health Week initiative here in Mozambique. Will share a couple of photos tomorrow but until then, here’s a short video. The man with the megaphone was shouting out information in both Portuguese and the local language Shangana, urging parents to bring their children to the mobile health post in the market for their essential vaccines.

In the end, however, as we all know – what draws most attention and interest is music.

The Mozambican Health Ministry has launched a nationwide “Health Week” starting on Monday the 26 November. During the week, all involved partners will cooperate to offer interventions aiming to improve the health of more than four million children under the age of five, and almost a million of women of reproductive age.

In all of the country, all children up to the age of five will be vaccinated against polio, children aged from six to 59 months will receive essential Vitamin A supplements, and children that are more than one year old will be dewormed.

Information campaigning and social mobilization has been carried out over the past 30 days to inform parents and other care givers such as teachers, community leaders, the private sector, political parties and religious leaders, of the need to ensure that all children receive the polio vaccination and the vitamin A supplement, which are essential for strengthening the immune system of children, protecting them against disease.

Additionally, all people of reproductive age are invited to attend counseling sessions on family planning where they will receive contraceptives of their choice during the entire week.

The initiative will take place in all health units in the country and mobile health brigades will visit villages and communities from 26 to 30 November.

As published on the UNICEF Mozambique website