VL Uganda, the Definition of Resilient

This week’s Fist Bump goes out to the entire VectorLink Uganda team who recently completed their 2022 IRS campaign on March 26th. VL Uganda has always been our largest IRS program, but this was the first time that the Uganda team sprayed in one phase, instead of the two phased approach – meaning this year’s VL Uganda IRS campaign was our largest ever IRS campaign! Between February 28th and March 26th, VL Uganda aimed to spray 1,125,143 eligible structures across 10 districts, protecting 3,762,780 people from malaria.

This tremendous effort was not without significant challenges. Consolidating what is traditionally a two-phase campaign into one meant resources and personnel had to be planned and strategized differently. The VL Uganda team also had to deal with the logistics of training much larger numbers of spray operators and data center clerks than ever before while also coping with exceptional logistical challenges because of Covid-19 global supply chain impacts. Another major challenge was that the entire team has been impacted by the loss of several team members throughout the COVID-19 pandemic while planning for the 2022 campaign was underway. They also lost Charles Onyait, VL Uganda’s Logistics Coordinator, to a prolonged illness during the campaign. Despite this, the team remained strong and resilient, implementing the PMI VectorLink Project’s largest ever IRS campaign with great efficiency and exceptional results; preliminary results show 98.7% progress, 93.9% coverage, and over one million structures sprayed!

Job well done, VL Uganda! It’s great seeing this campaign end on a high note!