The Story Behind the Image: The Fight Against Measles in Africa
In 2003, measles was killing close to a million children around the globe each year. Half of these deaths were in Sub-Saharan Africa. Children were dying even though an effective vaccine had existed for 40 years and at the time cost less than $1.00 (US) to administer.
That year, in Zambia 1,800 Zambian Red Cross volunteers mobilized to vaccinate five million children against this deadly disease - all within a one-week period.
I was assigned to cover the vaccination campaign by the Canadian Red Cross and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. My job was to document with images and stories the extraordinary work of Red Cross volunteers during this epic public health campaign.
Red Cross volunteers had the critical role of getting as many children as possible to vaccination sites that were spread throughout the countryside. To rob the disease of enough hosts and halt its spread, at least 80 per cent of children between the ages of six months and 15 years needed to get vaccinated.
Red Cross volunteers had to convince parents and community leaders that the vaccine was safe and effective. They accomplished this through critical grassroots activities, including community theatre, music, singing, dance and speaking to individual households. As is often the case, Red Cross volunteers were trusted members of the same community they served. "People see us bringing our children for vaccination and in most cases that's all the proof they need,” explained one volunteer.
My mission was to somehow tell this complex story visually - ideally in one photo. After several days traveling hundreds of miles from one vaccination site to the next, it had yet to reveal itself.
© Marko Kokic/Canadian Red Cross, Zambia 2003
Then, along a lonely stretch of highway in north-eastern Zambia, I came upon Zambian Red Cross volunteer Anton Chilufya pushing his bicycle, followed by nine children from nearby villages. The children were being escorted to Pintu Immigration Post, five miles away, where they would get the measles vaccine. Parents had allowed Anton and other Red Cross volunteers like him to take their children in their place.
This scene was the photo I was looking for. It spoke volumes about community trust and the resolve of Anton and the Zambian Red Cross to leave no child behind. I composed the photo to show the long road behind them and how far they had come. The afternoon sun was in front of them, revealing their faces while casting shadows behind them. Anton stoically looking forward showed his determination. All these elements combined to tell the story of this extraordinary vaccination campaign.
Postscript: While the scourge of measles has rebounded in Africa in recent years, a few short years after taking this photograph I read with some satisfaction a report that measles deaths had been halved across the continent.