RECEF

Notify Health Immunisation Reminder Project Kogi State.

is a project that aims at partnering with healthcare systems to implement automated message and voice-based vaccination reminders for caregivers of newborn children so as to plug the existing gaps in vaccination coverage that can be addressed through reminders.

This project aims to enrol large numbers of children and caregivers into a database through the digitisation of existing records (immunisation or birth registers), design informative, locally adapted reminders, schedule and send reminders through the whole routine childhood immunisation course with a view to improve immunisation coverage in the state.

Scoping Visits

The first stage of the Immunisation Reminder Project implementation is the conduct of the Needs Assessment. The RECEF team met meet with Dr. Samuel Harvey and Daniel Handschuh, co-founders of Notify Health at the RECEF Head Office in Lokoja. During the visit, scoping visits were planned and implemented to several facilities in Kogi State.

Planning Meetings

Several planning meetings preceded the conduct of the Needs Assessment on the Immunisation Reminder Project. A number of the meetings were virtual with a few being in-person. These meetings served the purpose of finetuning the implementation plans, decide on the LGAs, select the facilities, agree on the software of choice and finetune the survey questions.

Preliminary Training

Preliminary Training sessions to finalize the training protocols and beta-test the survey questionnaires were held. These preliminary trainings provided initial insights into the functionality of the survey tools and how fitting they were to the objectives of the Needs Assessment. It also enabled the finetuning the installation protocol of the data collection tool.

Enumerators Training

A training was organised for the enumerators on the Needs Assessment to familiarize themselves with the project objectives, survey protocol, data collection tools, and Needs Assessment plans. The Training was co-facilitated by Sam and Ikechukwu, enabling enumerators to test the tools, provide feedbacks and make recommendations.