Day: October 17, 2022

On a visit to Sisattanak District Hospital today, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink announced an additional USD1.5 million to further increase COVID-19 vaccination rollout support. The funding is administered through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF.
Ahead of the announcement, Assistant Secretary Kritenbrink joined Vice Minister of Health Dr. Snong Thongsna, U.S. Ambassador to the Lao PDR Dr. Peter M. Haymond, WHO Representative Dr. Ying-Ru Lo, and UNICEF Officer in Charge David Duncan to observe COVID-19 vaccination efforts and discuss requirements to close vaccination gaps.
Dr. Thongsna thanked the United States and USAID for their expanding support for COVID-19 as well as vaccine contribution and rollout. “Protecting people against COVID-19, to safeguard communities, support economic recovery, and avoid disruptions to school and work is one of our top priorities,” said Dr. Thongsna. “This timely additional support from USAID will save lives, ensuring our communities across Laos understand the benefits of vaccination and can get vaccinated. We aren’t safe until our most vulnerable people are safe.”
Currently, 72 percent of the population have completed all doses of COVID-19 vaccine primary series, coming closer to the 80 percent target for 2022. However, only one in four of the elderly population, who are at the highest risk for COVID-19, have completed the COVID-19 primary series.
The funding will support vaccine delivery, community outreach, media campaigns and a range of other assistance to increase COVID-19 vaccine coverage, especially for vulnerable communities, elderly and people with disabilities. A key focus will be to assist the Ministry of Health (MOH) to mobilize health care workers to increase vaccination efforts, including door to door vaccinations to rural and vulnerable populations.
“Today’s announcement reaffirms the strong partnership, under the U.S. Lao Comprehensive Partnership, in combating COVID-19 and setting the foundation to build back better,” said Assistant Secretary Kritenbrink. “The additional $1.5 Million will assist the Government of Lao PDR to further support COVID-19 vaccination rollout to vulnerable and at-risk populations, including elderly people and people with disabilities as well as those in hard-to-reach areas.”
The funding is part of the U.S. Government’s COVID-19 support of over $16.7 million in support of vaccine rollout, in addition to its recent arrival of 201,600 doses of pediatric Pfizer vaccine through the COVAX facility, helping the Lao PDR vaccinate children aged 5–11 and achieve its 80 percent vaccination target by the end of 2022. To date, the United States has provided over 2.9 million COVID-19 vaccine doses.
WHO’s Dr. Lo said, “We are deeply grateful for the steadfast support from the U.S. Government. We are not there yet, but the end of the pandemic is within reach. With efforts and commitment by families, communities and the health sector, we can ensure everyone is protected and recover together, safely. We ask: get vaccinated.”
All vaccines in use in the Lao PDR have been approved by WHO and Ministry of Health, and are proven to be safe and effective in protecting people from severe illness due to COVID-19.
“Vaccines are safe and save lives, but, only by working together and ensuring everyone is vaccinated – children, isolated communities, our sick and elderly – can we consider the job finished,” said UNICEF’s Mr. Duncan. “We must make any and every effort to protect everyone across the Lao PDR, particularly those most at-risk. This grant will help the Lao PDR reach this vital goal.”

Source: Lao News Agency

Ten years ago, the Asia-Pacific region came together and designed the world’s first set of disability-specific development goals: the Incheon Strategy to “Make the Right Real” for Persons with Disabilities.
This week, we meet again to assess how the governments have delivered on their commitments, to secure those gains and develop the innovative solutions needed to achieve fully inclusive societies.
Ministers, government officials, persons with disabilities, civil society and private sector allies from across Asia and the Pacific will gather from 19 to 21 October in Jakarta to mark the birth of a new era for 700 million persons with disabilities and proclaim a fourth Asian and Pacific Decade of Persons with Disabilities.
Our region is unique, having already declared three decades to protect and uphold the rights of persons with disabilities; 44 Asian and Pacific governments have ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; and we celebrate achievements in the development of disability laws, policies, strategies and programmes.
Today, we have more parliamentarians and policymakers with disabilities. Their everyday business is national decision-making. They also monitor policy implementation. We find them active across the Asia-Pacific region: Australia, Bangladesh, China, Japan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, the Marshall Islands, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Thailand and Türkiye. They have promoted inclusive public procurement to support disability-inclusive businesses and accessible facilities, advanced sign language interpretation in media programmes and parliamentary sessions, focused policy attention on overlooked groups, and directed numerous policy initiatives towards inclusion.
Less visible but no less important are local-level elected politicians with disabilities in India, Japan and the Republic of Korea. Indonesia witnessed 42 candidates with disabilities standing in the last election. Grass-root disability organizations have emerged as rapid responders to emerging issues such as COVID-19 and other crises. Organizations of and for persons with disabilities in Bangladesh have distinguished themselves in disability-inclusive COVID-19 responses, and created programmes to support persons with psychosocial disabilities and autism.
The past decade saw the emergence of private sector leadership in disability-inclusive business. Wipro, headquartered in India, pioneers disability inclusion in its multinational growth strategy. This is a pillar of Wipro’s diversity and inclusion initiatives. Employees with disabilities are at the core of designing and delivering Wipro digital services.
Yet, there is always more unfinished business to address.
Even though we applaud the increasing participation of persons with disabilities in policymaking, there are still only eight persons with disabilities for every 1,000 parliamentarians in the region.
On the right to work, 3 in 4 persons with disabilities are not employed, while 7 in 10 persons with disabilities do not enjoy any form of social protection.
This sobering picture points to the need for disability-specific and disability-inclusive policies and their sustained implementation in partnership with women and men with disabilities.
One of the first steps to inclusion is recognizing the rights of persons with disabilities. This model focuses on the person and their dignity, aspirations, individuality and value as a human being. As such, government offices, banks and public transportation and spaces must be made accessible for persons with diverse disabilities. To this end, governments in the region have conducted accessibility audits of government buildings and public transportation stations. Partnerships with the private sector have led to reasonable accommodations at work, promoting employment in a variety of sectors.
Despite the thrust of the Incheon Strategy on data collection and analysis, persons with disabilities still are often left out of official data because the questions that allow for disaggregation are excluded from surveys and accommodations are not made to ensure their participation. This reflects a continued lack of policy priority and budgetary allocations. To create evidence-based policies, we need reliable and comparable data disaggregated by disability status, sex and geographic location.
There is hope in the technology leap to 5G in the Asia-Pacific region. The implications for the empowerment of persons are limitless: from digital access, e-health care and assistive devices at affordable prices to remote learning and working, and exercising the right to vote. This is a critical moment to ensure disability-inclusive digitalization.
We live in a world of volatile change. A disability-inclusive approach to shape this world would benefit everyone, particularly in a rapidly ageing Asia-Pacific region where everyone’s contributions will matter. As we stand on the precipice of a fourth Asian and Pacific Decade of Persons with Disabilities it remains our duty to insist on a paradigm shift to celebrate diversity and disability inclusion. When we dismantle barriers and persons with disabilities surge ahead, everyone benefits.

Source: Lao News Agency

The Health Department of Luang Namtha province has set a goal of vaccinating against Covid-19 more than 85% of the population and encouraging the elderly and children to be vaccinated this year.
The Centre for Communication and Education on Health (CCEH) of the Ministry of Health (MoH), with the support from UNICEF Lao PDR, organised a trip for a team of journalists to observe and to promote Risk Communication and Community Engagement Activities for COVID-19 Vaccination especially those on Oct 12.
The visiting Luang Namtha, the media team have interviewed Deputy Director of the Health Department of Luang Namtha, Dr Bouanin Inchay about the implementation during the Covid-19 outbreak.
Dr Bouanin said that the Health Department of Luang Namtha Province was working with the Information, Culture and Tourism Department of Luang Namtha to broadcast radio spots produced by MoH, Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism (MICT) and UNICEF, through the radio and community loudspeakers. She said, the Health department of Luang Namtha province has received communication equipment with the support of UNICEF through the Centre for Communication and Education on Health total 12 sets of audio equipment and loudspeaker systems including 5 loudspeakers, microphone, audio amplifier and cable provided by DFAM through UNICEF Lao PDR.
The province has distributed it to each districts as appropriate and the districts have shared it with small hospitals and villages to use. However, access to provincial radio is still limited so the best way to provide information about OCVID-19 right now is through of loudspeaker systems.” She has said.
The use of loudspeaker systems, LCD and microphone, audio amplifier for small hospitals, villages to issue news, providing health education to prevent various diseases according to the season, opened the information page on the prevention of malaria, Covid-19, diarrhea, vaccination against various diseases.
Almost 85 per cent of the total population have been vaccinated with at least one dose. Currently the Health Department of Luang Namtha was providing Covid-19 vaccination efforts to have at least 82% of population to get vaccinate with at least one dose and 73% of two dose of Covid-19 vaccine and about 36% of population have been administered with a booster. Some areas are challenges and difficulties they are facing in fulfilling Covid-19 vaccination targets, because when the community is alert to receive the vaccine, we do not have enough vaccines to provide services, after we have enough vaccines, but the community does not give importance, especially booster dose.
Some families with elders over 70 years old are reluctant to get vaccinate, so the official cannot provide vaccinate services.
To make the vaccination to reach the target, the provincial health department will continue to provide services for the Covid-19 vaccine at the service points and continue providing the vaccinations, information about Covide-19 via loudspeaker systems

Source: Lao News Agency