Community Theatre for Immunisation
Using storytelling, trust, and local voices to improve vaccine demand.
Project Overview
The Community Theatre for Immunisation project used human-centred design, storytelling, drama, music, and local languages to address barriers to vaccine uptake in the Niger Delta region.
Rather than only sharing health messages, the project created space for communities to see their own experiences reflected through theatre. This helped caregivers better understand the value of immunisation and encouraged dialogue around trust, access, and child health.
Key Objectives:
Improve demand for routine immunisation services
Address myths, fears, and vaccine hesitancy
Use local storytelling to build trust
Strengthen community participation in health promotion
How we make change
Local storytelling
We used plays, songs, and community performances to communicate health messages in ways people could relate to.
Community participation
Community members became part of the solution by helping shape and deliver messages that reflected local realities.
Learning and adaptation
Feedback from communities helped refine the messages and improve the approach throughout implementation.
3,000+
Community members reached
18+
Communities engaged
40+
Theatre performances delivered
Helping communities see immunisation as a shared responsibility for survival.
CMS HARD FOUNDATION
Building trust through stories that feel familiar
This project showed that health communication works best when it is personal, respectful, and rooted in community experience. By combining public health knowledge with local creativity, CMS HARD Foundation helped communities engage with immunisation in a more meaningful way.
