Papua New Guinea: The one-on-one personal approach goes to work for COVID-19 protection
With COVID-19 causing sickness and death throughout Papua New Guinea, it is vital that frontliners working in shops and businesses know how to protect themselves and their communities. The World Health Organization (WHO) partnered with not-for-profit organisation, Businesses for Health (B4H), to reach this key group of people. B4H used its skills in workplace health promotion and behaviour change on tuberculosis (TB) and HIV to share information and advice about the coronavirus and promote vaccination.
To reach people, small teams of health promoters went door to door to hold more than 200 information sessions with business owners and staff in malls and other industrial hubs in and around the capital, Port Moresby, including a hub that focused on very small, women-led businesses.
The team faced challenges including lockdowns, businesses closing down, language barriers and civil unrest.
However, 97% of owners and workers said that, after one visit, they knew where to find up-to-date pandemic information and where to get tested, could accurately describe the greatest risk factors for serious COVID-19 disease, and had their questions about vaccines answered.
Scroll through the photos below to learn more about the community engagement activities in and around Port Moresby that led to some people becoming COVID-19 vaccine champions.