Children Immunization App relaunched at Zaatari refugee camp

AMMAN — The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), in collaboration with the research team at the Jordan University of Science and Technology (JUST) and the Eastern Mediterranean Public Health Network (EMPHNET) launched an updated version of the Children Immunization App (CImA) at the Zaatari refugee camp, incorporating parenting and caregiving under COVID-19 tools.

CImA in its original version, is a mobile phone application designed to support refugees in the Zaatari camp by providing access to trustworthy, evidence-based vaccine information and recording vaccination history for children according to the Jordanian national vaccination guidelines, according to a statement posted on the UNODC website.

Now in its updated format, it would cover valuable UNODC parenting information on the best means to care for children during COVID19 including in crowded and refugee settings.

UNODC has been working on enhancing family skills for the prevention of substance use and violence (including against children) as well as supporting mental health in line with the UNODC WHO International Standards on Drug Use Prevention.

Such family skills focus on nurturing positive communication and attachment as well as maintaining age-appropriate rules and discipline to ensure youth’s safe and healthy development, the statement said.

COVID-19 related stress, either directly from the anxiety linked to the virus, from the preventive modalities around it, including school closure, physical distancing and working from home, or indirectly from its socioeconomic impact on families and communities — ongoing and anticipated — carried a significant toll on vulnerabilities of youth and their immediate families, read the statement.

This includes vulnerabilities linked to different negative coping mechanisms including substance and alcohol use, violence and more.

UNODC developed material to support families under such circumstances with specific requisites for caregivers in crowded or refugee settings.

On a parallel track, the need for children vaccination among refugees is crucial as they may be exposed to crowded locations or low vaccinated areas.

Thus, spreading awareness about the health benefits of vaccination, using automated reminders, and reducing the risk of losing their vaccination documents became a high priority, the agency said.

Moreover, smartphone ownership, Android in particular, among refugees is considered high.

The app was first developed by the JUST and EMPHNET, in collaboration with the Jordanian Ministry of Health, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and UNICEF.

The seed grant was from Grand Challenges Canada, funded by the Government of Canada, the statement said.

The Zaatari camp, some 80km northeast of Amman,which is considered one of the biggest refugee camps in the Middle East with 80,000 residents, was benefitting from the introduction process of the app and will now expand the usage with its UNODC updated version.

Funded by the government of Japan, the CImA App is currently updated to include: Health education sheets provided by UNICEF; registration of the children’s vaccination schedule; automated reminder for parents for the upcoming vaccination appointment; automated reminder for the parents in case they missed the vaccination appointment of their child; and now parenting skills materials developed by UNODC and translated into Arabic for the parents in the camp to support them during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The collaboration aims to benefit families already subscribed to the app while also including 1,000 additional households during a period of two months, to bolster the synergistic outcome the beneficiary families would get from the vaccination as well as the parenting and caregiving content, support parents and children regarding vaccine-preventable diseases and COVID-19 related outcomes.