Ehsaas International kick started Vaccine Awareness Drive, Dr. Aarthi US based Expert takes the lead.

After understanding the need for increased awareness on accurate information on COVID-19 Vaccines amongst the masses, an outreach program was started today for the underserved population of Mir Behri, Dal. The outreach serves as a measure to bridge the gap between information and understanding.
An interactive session between the people and subject expert Dr. Aarthi, a physician with specialization in internal medicine and geriatrics from USA. This session was moderated by Ms. Sadaf Firdous, coordinator Ehsaas International. The session helped in assessing their readiness towards understanding of the existing COVID-19 vaccines. Vaccine myths and misinformation, which are quite prevalent, were voiced by the people as the predominant concern for hesitancy. A prominent rumor about the vaccines is the fear of female infertility and the source of this rumor remains largely untraceable, even though it seems to be widely propagated by word of mouth. Infact, many still continue to question the existence of a pandemic and state that they have not personalized a COVID-19 experience in their family or friends. Today’s two-way interactive session supported by facts and evidence allowed for community level engagement between healthcare workers and helped familiarize the people with vaccine safety, efficacy and side effects. The locals came across as curious and willing to engage in discussion and reasoning. This engagement is an effective method to facilitate vaccine readiness and helps us get a better idea of the barriers that need to be overcome in order to achieve optimal COVID-19 immunization for community protection.
Going forward, this ongoing outreach program will serve to focus on preparing them mentally for vaccination while also sharing information on how to stay safe during this pandemic.
The programme was conducted by Ehsaas Trust International in association with Mir Behri Welfare Society at Divine Coaching Centre.