The QRCS campaign – being implemented by the Syria vaccination team amid strict Covid-19 preventive measures – aims to reach out to children who were not vaccinated during previous campaigns and to achieve zero polio in northern Syria.
As a neutral observer, QRCS seeks to ensure that the vaccination process meets international standards. A well-trained team of QRCS personnel are deployed across the target areas to ensure the adequacy of vaccination hubs, the validity of injections, good performance of vaccinators, and safe outreach to children.
Other tasks of the monitoring team included correcting any procedures not complying with the plan, applying the coronavirus control measures, reporting on the progress and final results, and proposing recommendations.
The vaccinators and observers moved around districts and rural areas of Idlib and Aleppo, where the public health sector is failing due to the war and Covid-19 outbreak.
QRCS has considerable experience in monitoring child vaccination campaigns against infectious diseases. Its representation mission in Gaziantep, Turkey, holds intensive in-house and on-site training courses to improve the monitoring, planning, follow-up, and reporting skills among the observers, so that they are qualified to accompany the vaccinators wherever they go.
For years now, QRCS has been engaged in monitoring many child vaccination campaigns in Syria against polio, measles, and rubella. It worked together with many UN agencies, international humanitarian organisations, and local charities to protect millions of Syrian children.
