EBODAC: Democratic Republic of Congo

The WHO declared a new outbreak of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in DRC in August 2018, the 10th such outbreak in the country. World Vision Ireland as part of the EBODAC consortium began supporting the clinical trials of Ebola Vaccines in DRC in 2019. We have been working closely with our partner organisation, World Vision DRC, to develop and implement communication and community engagement strategies and to support the use of enabling technologies.

EBODAC is supporting the development and roll out of communication tools and a community engagement strategy. This includes technical support training, field visit reviews and cross border engagements between DRC and Rwanda on rumour management and best practices in addressing rumours or challenges.

Community Health worker visiting a family in the DRC

Community Engagement Team

In DRC, World Vision has a dedicated Community Engagement Team who are working with local communities to address the stigma surrounding Ebola, common rumours and misconceptions of the disease and Ebola vaccination.

World Vision support Community Health Workers (CHWs) who conduct household meetings to educate communities about the vaccine, address any questions or concerns and follow up with participants to encourage them to return for their boost (2nd) dose of the vaccine and tracing of participants who have missed their boost dose.

We have also trained faith leaders, women and youth leaders in Channels of Hope for Ebola to facilitate the mobilization of participants for vaccine uptake and compliance.

EBODAC is also supporting the use of MOTECH (see description below) in the DRC vaccine trials, which is utilised to remind participants of their scheduled clinic appointments.

*The MOTECH platform supports clinical trial teams to effectively recall participants to receive the second dose of the prime-boost vaccine regimen or attend scheduled clinic visits. It has been successfully deployed and adapted to the needs of a multilingual population with a high rate of illiteracy and a lack of familiarity with clinical trials

3C Gap Analysis Tool

A shortened version of the 3C Gap Analysis Tool – the Rapid Assessment Checklist was piloted in the Ebola outbreak areas in DRC in December 2019. The tool is for use in an outbreak setting, its piloting in DRC provided feedback on the appropriateness and usability of the tool in an outbreak setting and contributed to the DRC response to the EVD outbreak. EBODAC will also conduct a comprehensive country level Gap Analysis with the Ministry of Health in DRC to identify gaps and support the bridging of those gaps.

Democratic Republic of Congo

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