Malaria vaccine communication workshop with health workers in Ghana

Malaria remains a major cause of illness and death in Ghana, particularly among children under five and pregnant women. Ghana’s malaria vaccine programme has made progress, yet completion of the four-dose schedule remains uneven across communities, despite high reported acceptance. The gaps reflect service delivery constraints, and also the social and relational dynamics that shape caregivers’ decisions.

Community health workers are well placed to address caregivers' perceptions, misinformation, trust, and practical barriers. The workshop asked whether giving them a structured space to reflect on their own communication would help.

On 9 April 2026, an 85-minute interactive workshop was held at Ensign Global University in Kpong, Ghana. All 41 participants were frontline health workers, including midwives, nurses, and community health officers, from rural and urban communities.

The session opened with a short mock conversation between a caregiver and a health worker. Participants then worked in groups of three on one of two cases, in three 10-minute role-plays, rotating through the health worker, caregiver, and observer roles. They recorded their reflections on a worksheet and discussed them across groups, so that rural and urban workers could learn from each other. A presentation on vaccine hesitancy and a wrap-up closed the session.

A post-session survey asked participants to rate their confidence in vaccine communication before and after the session, on 5-point scales, and the perceived impact of the workshop. Pre/post confidence was compared with the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Worksheet responses were analysed thematically.

Matt, Diaphana’s founder, planned and organised the workshop, analysed the survey and worksheet data, and is the poster’s first author.