Schools power polio fight

At Makawa Primary School in Mangochi District, more than 5000 children fill classrooms each day. However, March 24 2026 is not an ordinary Monday for the learners. It marked the first day in Malawi’s nationwide polio vaccination campaign.

This was the first round of the emergency immunisation campaign following the discovery of poliovirus in an unvaccinated child and two sewage treatment sites in Blantyre City. The numbers tell a tale of trust, coordination and a shared commitment to protect every child from the disease that does not only paralyse limbs and other parts but also causes death. For Koche Community Hospital health surveillance assistant Angela Kasekani, this moment was the result of careful, community-driven work.

“Vaccination is the best way to keep children safe,” she says. “Before every child is vaccinated, we sensitise the community, through leaders and conversations.” It is this collaboration among parents, teachers and health workers that truly protects children, says the community health worker. She describes a system built on shared roles and mutual trust: “Health workers bring knowledge, explaining what polio is, how it spreads and how vaccines work.

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“Parents hold the power to decide, to say yes to protection. “Teachers, meanwhile, become the bridge opening access, sharing information, and linking families to services.” The said collaboration came to life inside a crowded classroom at the rural school along the baobab-adorned southern shoreline of Lake Malawi. Standard Two teacher Shamim Bwanali was on her toes, ensuring all 152 learners in her class received the oral vaccine to avoid catching the resurgent poliovirus that scientists have traced to a case in Zimbabwe.

“I engaged all parents and warned them about the dangers of the polio disease. I told them that polio causes paralysis and that vaccination is the only protection. They were all forthcoming and gave consent for their wards to receive the vaccine,” she says.

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