Pan African Forum on Building Trust for Immunization and child survival with Religious and Traditional leaders.

Back in 1997, during the famine that swept through Bar el Ghazal in southern Sudan, when factional fighting was hindering the delivery of humanitarian assistance, UNICEF and its partners launched the first National Immunization Days for polio in southern Sudan. Many would have said it was an impossible task in lights of the situation; in the midst of one of the longest, most devastating conflicts in modern history, the humanitarian community was talking about immunizing millions of children. But we had a group of advocate and influencers working with us, who provided a solid platform from which to launch this seemingly unfeasible mission; using the power of local elders and church leaders, we not only reached hundreds of thousands of children with the life saving measles, polio vaccines and vitamin A, but also took advantage of the subsequent days of peace to bring food to the starving. For the first time since beginning of a conflict that has ravaged Sudan for nearly five decades, local community leaders negotiated days of peace for immunization. And this was not a one-off event; I believe the system still holds strong today.