UNICEF Delivers COVID-19 Vaccines to Teachers in Afghanistan

In Afghanistan, tireless UNICEF-supported health workers travel through mountainous terrain to deliver COVID-19 vaccine doses to the hardest-to-reach.

In Daikundi province in central Afghanistan, workers use motorbikes over winding roads to speed vaccines to teachers like Gul Chaman Sadat Mousavi, who teaches fifth grade at Dasht Girls' High School.

One of the first to be vaccinated in her district, Mousavi said, "Today I feel comfortable, happy and at peace because we [teachers] and the children feel protected against the virus."

On March 8, Afghanistan received its first consignment of 468,000 doses of COVID-19 AstraZeneca vaccines through the COVAX Facility, a multilateral initiative for the equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines worldwide co-led by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), with UNICEF leading on procurement and supply.

Afghanistan's government prioritized early vaccine shipments for the protection of teachers and university professors. The nation's schools were closed for several months to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. They reopened for the new school year on March 23, 2021.