The Challenge
Reaching every child with life-saving vaccines requires more than vaccines and health facilities. It requires health workers who are willing to go the extra mile, communities that understand the importance of vaccination, and communication that makes these efforts visible.
For the Fourth Phase of Malawi’s National Polio Vaccination Campaign, UNICEF needed to document campaign activities and capture the people and stories behind the vaccination effort across the Southern Region.
The challenge was to tell a story that went beyond simply showing children receiving vaccines. The documentation needed to demonstrate the scale of the campaign, the commitment of frontline health workers, and the different ways teams were reaching children including those in hard-to-reach and highly mobile communities.
Our Approach
Eluby Consulting worked with UNICEF to capture campaign highlights across Mwanza, Thyolo and Blantyre City, using photography and videography to document the campaign as it unfolded.
Rather than focusing solely on vaccination points, we looked at the wider story of access where children were being reached, who was making that possible, and what it takes to ensure that no child is left behind.
Our documentation captured:
- Vaccination activities across different communities and settings.
- The dedication of frontline health workers administering vaccines and engaging with caregivers.
- The campaign at Mwanza Stadium, where vaccination services were provided to people returning from South Africa, highlighting the importance of reaching mobile populations.
- Children and families accessing vaccination services.
- The coordination and community-level efforts supporting the campaign.
- The human stories behind the national effort to protect children from polio.
Bringing the Human Story to the Forefront
One of the most significant moments we captured was vaccination taking place at Mwanza Stadium, where people returning from South Africa could access the vaccine.
This provided an important visual representation of a critical public health principle: children should be able to access essential health services regardless of where they live, travel or come from.
We also focused on the health workers at the centre of the campaign.
From established vaccination points to locations where children and families are constantly on the move, health workers demonstrated remarkable dedication in making sure children could access the polio vaccine.
Their work showed that reaching every child requires flexibility, persistence and a commitment to meeting communities where they are.
The Story We Told
Through visual storytelling, Eluby helped transform campaign activities into a narrative about access, commitment and collective action.
The resulting photographs and videos provide UNICEF with authentic content that can be used to communicate the progress and human impact of the vaccination campaign to stakeholders, partners and wider audiences.
The documentation shows that behind every vaccination statistic is a child, a family and a health worker and behind every successful campaign is a network of people working to ensure that no child is left behind.
Our Impact
The project strengthened the visual documentation of Malawi’s polio vaccination response by capturing the campaign across multiple locations and highlighting both the community experience and the dedication of frontline workers.
More importantly, the content helps shift the conversation around vaccination from numbers alone to the people and efforts that make those numbers possible.
For Eluby, this project reflects our approach to development storytelling:
We don’t just document what happened. We look for the people, moments and stories that explain why it matters.
From Campaign Activity to Human Story
The Fourth Phase of the National Polio Vaccination Campaign demonstrated what it takes to reach children across different communities and circumstances.
Our role was to make those efforts visible capturing the people behind the campaign and creating visual stories that communicate the importance of ensuring every child has access to life-saving vaccines.
Because every child counts. Every voice matters. And every story of impact deserves to be told.
Services Delivered
Photography | Videography | Multimedia Documentation | Human-Interest Storytelling | Campaign Content
