True to its Commitment to safeguarding the Rights of the children, the Consortium of Bangsamoro Civil Society (CBCS) in partnership with the Bangsamoro Darul-Ifta’, Hay-ato Ulama Al-Muslimin in the Philippines and Committee on Da’wah and Masajid Affairs with support from UNICEF, provided support to the health workers of Lanao del Sur through the Integrated Provincial Health Office (IPHO) by deploying Muslim Religious Leaders (MRLs) and Health Workers in its Rural Health Units (RHUs) during the Measles Rubella-Oral Polio Vaccine Supplemental Immunization Activities (MR-OPV SIA) and Measles Outbreak Response Immunization (MORI) campaign in implementation of the program Strengthening Engagement with Muslim Religious Leaders for Promotion of Child Rights and Islam.
121 Muslim Religious Leaders and 318 health workers have been tapped and mobilized to do the vaccination campaigns in the 38 municipalities of Lanao del Sur including Marawi City, since the Measles outbreak. Equipped with knowledge, skills, experience, and determination, these Muslim Religious Leaders (MRLs) are of big help in addressing the vaccine hesitancy of parents by providing Muhadarah and Khutba (sermons) in the Masjids, Madrasah, schools, and house-to-house campaigns where they can propagate the Islamic teaching on immunization.
Lanao del Sur is registered with the most refusals and deferred parents and is the most affected province of BARMM by the measles outbreak, registering some 188 cases. In comparison, Marawi City registered 105 cases in October 2023. Among the province’s top municipalities with high cases, Malabang has the highest with 32 cases, followed by Masiu with 22 instances, Tamparan with 18, Saguiaran with 12 cases, and Balabagan with 10 cases (as of April 19, 2024). It also recorded the highest number of mortality cases, numbering 13 from 2023 to 2024.
A total of 24,782 children are now vaccinated with anti-Measles through the facilitation of the program. On the other hand, more than 7,000 children have undertaken the Oral Polio Vaccine.
In the municipality of Marogong, Mr. Biling Kusain, 54 years old, a farmer, and a grandfather of 14 children, in Barangay Bolawan, Marogong, Lanao del Sur, refused to be vaccinated even during the heights of the campaign for COVID-19 vaccination due to the bad experience of his family several years ago, wherein his 2 children died of illness after being vaccinated in the rural health unit. The same fate was also experienced by their relatives and neighbors during the breakout; several children died after receiving the vaccination. This caused him to distrust any vaccination programs of the government and swear a word that he was willing to take his life when a member of his family would be vaccinated. Since then, all health workers who tried to administer vaccines have failed.
With the mobilization and deployment of Muslim Religious Leaders Khalid Hadjinoor and Elias Baraguir, all members of the Hay-ato Ulama who were trained under the program “ Strengthening Engagement with Muslim Religious Leaders for the Promotion of Child Rights and Islam”, approached Mr. Biling on April 22, 2024, together with the Health Workers of Marogong, CBCS, and IPHO-Lanao del Sur, these MRLs gradually convinced Mr. Biling using the Child’s Right on Immunization Sermon (khutba) to interfere with his hesitancy and eventually cooperate with the Health Workers. These efforts made the belief of Mr. Biling fall into bits. Thus, 5 of his grandchildren were vaccinated against measles, while other children will also be administered the vaccine.
This positive experience is just one of the hundreds, if not thousands of experiences in other municipalities of Lanao del Sur where hesitant parents successfully changed their perspectives from vaccine hesitancy to vaccine support.
Since 2019, upon the installation of the transition period in BARMM, our Muslim Religious Leaders (MRLs), numbering some 3,691, have been supporting our Health Workers in its Immunization programs, including the Polio and Measles eradication campaign, COVID-19 prevention, and COVID-19 vaccination roll-out.
By: Mohamad Omar
CBCS Project Officer
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