Faith Leaders Allay Vaccine Fears amid Measles Outbreak
To reach herd immunity, health agencies and UNICEF collaborate with Muslim religious leaders
Marawi City, Lanao del Sur, 26 April 2024 – Standing in the mihrab (a semicircular niche in the wall), Sheik Mohammad Bani speaks to more than 50 Muslims. “We must protect ourselves from contagious and deadly diseases, such as Covid, polio and measles,” says the imam (worship leader) during the Friday congregational prayer in a mosque in this city on Mindanao island, about 800 kilometers south of the national capital, Manila.
“Prevention is better than cure,” adds Bani, quoting passages from the Qur’an every now and then. “Have your children vaccinated. Let doctors and health workers take care of them.”
For the past five years, a khutbah (sermon) that promotes immunization has been a regular part of the Friday prayer in many mosques in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM, and now that the region is facing a measles outbreak, Muslim religious leaders continue to play a key role in immunization efforts.
“BARMM has the lowest vaccination rate among all the regions in the country, and this is partly because of beliefs, so we asked help from Muslim religious leaders in clarifying misconceptions about vaccines,” says Amina Rafia Zeina Lim, UNICEF Social and Behavior Change Officer.
“Based on studies, religious leaders are the most trusted members of the community in BARMM,” adds Lim. “Even in issues about health, people trust religious leaders more than they trust healthcare workers. The leaders’ participation is vital in the success of any health-related programmes.”
In addition to doctors, nurses or health workers, religious and community leaders aim to get to herd immunity, where a large portion of a community becomes immune to a disease, making its spread from person to person unlikely. As a result, the entire community is protected, not just those who are immune.
Aligned with Islamic law
Supported by BARMM’s Ministry of Health, UNICEF and other agencies, Muslim religious leaders in the region met in 2018 to discuss Islam’s stand on immunization. As a result, the region’s Darul-Ifta’ or advisory council on Islamic law issued a fatwa (ruling) in 2019 that vaccines are halal (permitted).
In 2022, UNICEF and the other agencies facilitated another series of meetings for the religious leaders, who decided to write and publish a collection of 44 khutbahs (sermons) on children’s rights and health-related matters, including immunization.
Copies of the collection were distributed to ulama (scholars) all over BARMM. Bani is one of the ulama. “Let’s take care of our health because that’s one way of thanking Allah,” he further tells the worshippers at Masjid Nur Aminah. His message couldn’t be more relevant as measles is spreading at an alarming rate in the region. The Ministry of Health has recorded 1,175 cases for the entire 2023 and over 500 cases for the first quarter of 2024.
Let’s take care of our health because that’s one way of thanking Allah.
Member of vaccination team
The use of the khutbahs is not confined to mosques. UNICEF and its partner agencies, including the Consortium of Bangsamoro Civil Society (CBCS), have been conducting consultations and trainings for ulama who expressed interest in working closely with healthcare workers.
“The collaboration began during the Covid-19 pandemic,” says Diamila Mabaning, CBCS provincial coordinator for Lanao del Sur. “We trained 135 Muslim religious leaders to go with healthcare workers who visited houses to give vaccines and other health services. Speaking about immunization became a passion for the trained religious leaders. When we tapped them again for the measles outbreak, they were eager to help.”
Under the latest programme, imam and ustadz (teacher) Khardawi Abdullah visited 30 of Lanao del Sur’s 39 municipalities from January to February this year. “I travelled with nurses and other health workers from the Integrated Provincial Health Office,” says the Marawi resident.
One memorable experience for the ustadz happened in Tamparan, a municipality about 30 kilometers south of Marawi. “Health workers there had gone to a family five times, even with a doctor once, but the parents had kept on refusing to have their children vaccinated. I talked to the parents for 10 to 15 minutes, explaining to them the stand of Islam on vaccination. Thankfully, they listened to me and allowed the team to vaccinate their three children.”
Continued involvement
To date, UNICEF and its partner agencies have conducted trainings for 3,691 Muslim religious leaders from all over BARMM. “When the trained religious leaders joined the house-to-house immunization, we gave them some financial support,” says Mabaning. “But in latest consultation with CBCS and the Integrated Provincial Health Office, they said that they were willing to continue the work on their own. They have even mentored the other religious leaders in their communities so that the advocacy would spread even further.”
As an ustadz and a father of three young children, Abdullah values his experience with the vaccination team. “An ustadz should also speak about health,” he says. “An Islamic scholar I admire said that people should live in a community where there is a religious leader and there is a doctor. The roles of both are not against each other. If anything, they should work together.”
