Kabah Model: A community participation model for vaccine coverage promotion in children aged 0-5 years in the Southern border provinces, Thailand

Abstract

This participatory research aimed at developing a vaccine coverage enhancement mechanism among children aged 0-5 years in the Southern border provinces. Participants were 137 community leaders, religious leaders, health personnel, parents and child center teachers, selected from 8 districts with low vaccine coverage from four Southern border provinces. The mechanism was developed through 5 steps; 1) knowing community and understanding problems, 2) brain storming, 3) developing the mechanism, 4) implementing, and 5) evaluating. The Mechanism called “Ka’bah Model” was mobilized through various activities and tools by 4 pillars; 1) Mosque consisted of religious and community leaders, 2) Hospital consisted of health care personnel, 3) Home consisted of parents or guardians, and 4) School consisted of teachers from community children centers. The results shown that most of the participants gained new knowledge, concepts, skills and experiences while participated in the study and contributed to the learning and development of immunization capabilities of local practitioners at a high level. In addition, the Ka’bah model also promoted the participation of various networks in the community, helped to continuously and sustainably solve problems and promote vaccination coverage among children aged 0-5 in the area.