Heavy rains, landslides and flash floods during the monsoons cut-off all motorable access to the remote villages of Kulang, Amarsang, Thadteja and Pormawdar of Ranikor block in South-West Khasi Hills district of Meghalaya, severely impacting COVID-19 vaccination drive and forcing them to turn back twice.
Undeterred by the monsoon fury, the all-women teams of COVID-19 vaccinators in the state strapped backpacks with vaccine carriers and other equipment and trekked for nine hours, through hills, amidst rain and slush, to take lifesaving COVID-19 vaccines to these five villages on 14 July 2021.
Waiting for the monsoons to get over in October wasn’t an option. The road to Kulang is inaccessible in summer due to rains and can be reached only in winter. And roads to Pormawdar, Amarsang, Thadteja and Umthengkut are not motorable even in winters as only special-geared vehicles with expert drivers can reach those villages.
On 14 July 2021, five all-women vaccination teams set-off carrying heavy backpacks filled with COVID-19 vaccine vials in vaccine carriers, adverse events following immunization (AEFI) kits, documents, packed foods and water etc. The officer-in-charge of Nonghyllam police station volunteered the support of police personnel, who travelled with them for their security and safety on a journey that began by road at 5:30 am to reach Kulang at 08:00 am, which was the first stop.
“Heavy flooding submerged the road to Pormawdar, we walked for almost 3-hours. We reached Pormawdar at around 11:00 am, where the vaccination teams and police personnel split into two groups, with one headed for Amarsang and the other for Thadteja. The journey to Amarsang took us another two and half hours, and it took 3-hours to reach Thadteja,” said Dr Patmos Warjri, Medical and Health Officer in-charge of the vaccination teams.
“There were leeches and snakes throughout the way, and we joked about who had the most leech bites. Our teams vaccinated 147 beneficiaries in the villages in one day. We made our way back on foot to Pormawdar and were back at Kulang by 11:00 pm, finally reached at Ranikor Community Health Centre at around 1:30 am the following day,” said Dr Warjri.
Dr Anita, who is part of the WHO Rapid Response Team in Meghalaya, was among the women supporting the district administration in COVID-19 advocacy-related activities in South-West Khasi Hills district. She was among the first teams to reach Kulang village. The team has been promoting COVID-19 vaccination as well as continued COVID-19 appropriate behaviour.
Many villages served by the Ranikor Community Health Centre are hard-to-reach and inaccessible during most times of the year. “All our field workers have been working tirelessly in immensely challenging conditions to ensure that the vaccines and health care reaches everyone,” said Dr Warjri.