Empowering community leaders to advocate for COVID-19 vaccines through the vaccine champions programme

In this week’s episode, we bring you a panel discussion on how the vaccine champions programme has empowered community leaders to advocate for COVID-19 vaccines in Australia, Vietnam, and Fiji. 

You will hear from three vaccination experts and leaders who are all involved in an innovative behavioural change programme known as Vaccine Champions, which was developed in Victoria, Australia and has recently been rolled out in Fiji and Vietnam.

On the panel:

• Sr Litiana Volavola, National Program Manager for the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) and Supply Chain and Fiji COVID-19 Vaccination Team Lead
• Professor Thu Anh Nguyen from the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research in Vietnam
• Professor Margie Danchin, Group Leader, Vaccine Uptake, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute

In this episode we discuss the results from the implementation of the vaccine champions programme in Australia and how it has been rolled out in Vietnam and Fiji, including:  

• An overview of the vaccine champions programme and what it means to be a vaccine champion. 
• The challenges and barriers to achieving high vaccine coverage in the community such as access and acceptance. 
• Learnings from recent trainings in Vietnam and Fiji and how the programme is supporting community leaders to advocate for COVID-19 vaccines in their communities. 

We encourage you to join the conversation at @CentreHealthSec. You also access the paper Vaccine Champions Training Program: Empowering Community Leaders to Advocate for COVID-19 Vaccines here: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-393X/10/11/1893