Over the past two years, the spread of Coronavirus disease (Covid-19) has become one of the global health threats. Until the end of February 2022, three large waves of Covid-19 cases have been recorded in Indonesia. Daily cases had reached 2,000 cases per 100,000 population in a day. The South Sulawesi Covid-19 Task Force recorded 134,674 cases of Covid-19 with a Case Fatality Rate of 1.74%.

The government has responded to this crisis by presenting many public health policies. Strategies that have been and are currently being implemented for handling Covid-19 are implementing health protocols, testing and tracing the right targets, building centralized self-isolation facilities, and finally accelerating Covid-19 vaccination throughout Indonesia. with a target of 70-80% to achieve herd immunity within 12 months. However, until the end of February 2022, complete dose vaccination coverage in South Sulawesi only reached 56.92%. Some of the main challenges in South Sulawesi in controlling the pandemic and increasing vaccination coverage are the prevalence of misinformation and hoaxes and the declining awareness of public health protocols. Therefore, strategic support and intervention are still needed to increase vaccination coverage and reduce the impact of this pandemic.

The Covid-19 pandemic has also hampered various other health program efforts, especially for children, one of which is the routine basic immunization program. According to the Ministry of Health, the achievement of routine immunization has decreased since 2020, based on a report in October 2021, the coverage of basic immunization has only reached 58.4% of the target of 79.1%. Low and uneven coverage can lead to an accumulation of a population of children who are susceptible to diseases such as Measles, Rubella, Diphtheria, and Polio. Low coverage can also cause a ticking time bomb that causes an outbreak of the disease. In 2021, Jenewa Madani Indonesia and UNICEF collaborated to assist the government in the RCCE program in 5 districts to reduce the impact of Covid-19 on society and aspects of education. This support is highly appreciated by the provincial government and related stakeholders. However, further technical support is still needed to reduce the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, especially on children. In 2022 UNICEF will continue the program that has been carried out in South Sulawesi in the areas with the lowest Covid-19 vaccination achievements (Sinjai, Jeneponto, and North Luwu) and Makassar is the area with the largest population in the province.

UNICEF and Yayasan Jenewa Madani Indonesia work together in the implementation of the program and complete the tasks according to their respective responsibilities in this program document. All activities will be implemented in close partnership with local government including PHO, DHO, PEO, and DEO.