By Getrude Shepelo – Kenya
In Kilosa District, a majority of residents are pastoralists who practice extensive livestock grazing, often moving from place to place to find pasture and water. Dogs are integral to this community, typically accompanying cattle herds in groups of 3 to 7. Despite Tanzania’s well-structured livestock health services and established vaccination programs, there is low rabies vaccination in dogs and inadequate education among dog owners. Since dogs are occupied with full-time herding responsibilities during the day, efforts to establish rabies vaccination stations for them during rabies vaccination campaigns in Kilosa have had limited success.
During the AFROHUN experiential learning field visits, there were sessions where focused group discussion on rabies and its prevention were held with the community members. During a one of the discussions, Getrude engaged community members in their local dialect, encouraging them to discuss an approach for rabies prevention. They proposed integrating rabies vaccination and health information into routine livestock activities like watering points, markets, and stock routes during the dry season. This approach optimizes resources and promotes collaboration among various One Health disciplines—animal, human, environmental and other experts. Tanzania’s established One Health structures at the ward level provide a solid legal framework for implementing these services, making the approach highly practical for supporting pastoralist communities in rabies prevention. AFROHUN Tanzania, having established trust in Kilosa District’s One Health Co-ordination Team, is well-positioned to lead and support this integration program.
“This was an eye-opener for me, especially to note that the communities have solutions to their problems and that we only come to support them actualize. Trust remains key for the communities to engage, because before I could speak to them in their language, they seemed to just respond affirmative to any discussion, without giving their voice.” Getrude following the discussion with the community.
Getrude discussing the integrated model of dog-mediated rabies vaccination in Kilosa District with other participants
Getrude is among 40 participants trained through experiential learning by AFROHUN to effectively communicate health threats to communities. This approach implies that future health interventions and risk communications should be integrated into the primary livelihood activities of the target communities. Identifying these activities requires effective community engagement. Without AFROHUN’s community engagement in Kilosa, the District administration would likely have continued conventional rabies vaccination methods, resulting in minimal community turnout and low success in achieving the 70% vaccination target for the dog population.