Partnering with Religious Leaders to Improve Community Health in Tajikistan

During a January 30, 2024, workshop, religious leaders and community health workers discussed the results of three years of cooperation to improve community commitment towards vaccination. The work, which included having religious leaders emphasize the importance of immunization in their sermons, has helped Tajikistan achieve COVID-19 vaccination rates of more than 99 percent in the target regions of Sughd and Khatlon.  

Through training sessions in 2021 and 2022 organized by the USAID Local Health System Sustainability Project (LHSS) in collaboration with Tajikistan’s Committee on Religion and the Regulation of Traditions, religious leaders and staff from Tajikistan’s Republican Healthy Lifestyle Center learned about COVID-19 prevention and the role of vaccination in preventing infectious diseases. These vital community leaders then worked to reduce vaccine hesitancy and mobilize communities to receive COVID-19 vaccines.  

Imkhatib from Bokhtar district shares his experience fighting COVID-19 and  decreasing community hesitancy towards vaccination at a January 30, 2024, workshop for Healthy Lifestyle Center staff and religious leaders from 15 districts.