House to house in Benguema: nurse Jenevia Johnson walks the vaccines to the children who missed them

On a chilly, gusty morning in Waterloo, Sierra Leone, vaccination nurse Jenevia Johnson packed vaccines from a solar-powered refrigerator into a carrier and set out with her six-member team for Benguema, about six miles away. Their mission was the children who slip through the cracks — babies who have never had a single vaccine, and others who missed a scheduled dose. The team went house to house, talking with mothers and caregivers and vaccinating children on the spot. The backdrop is real progress: UNICEF's 2025 reporting put national coverage for the third dose of the pentavalent vaccine (which protects against five diseases) at 92.7%, yet more than 1,800 children in the country have still never received a first dose. With support from Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, outreach like Jenevia's now runs across all 16 districts, taking vaccines closer to the families who find clinics hardest to reach. 'Today, we are determined to trace and vaccinate babies whose mothers have not been bringing them to the health centre,' she said. 'We will walk from house to house.'

SDG 3 · Good health and well-being — Mechanism: institutional program