Highlights
- Australia's African communities rush to get COVID jab after initial hesitancy
- Leaders from healthcare, religious outfits, community groups urge people to get vaccinated
- COVID deaths, fear of backlash, promise of return of freedoms drive African communities to COVID vaccination
As the race to vaccinate Australians gathers pace, there are widespread concerns some sections of migrant communities may be left behind.
Health professionals, faith and community leaders and members of the African communities have been at the forefront of the campaign to address vaccine hesitancy amongst their own and it appears their messages may be cutting through and showing people the 
Conflicting information, social media misinformation and constantly changing public health recommendations were blamed for their initial hesitation to take the jab.
Healthcare workers from the African communities have helped purge people of the hesitancy Source: AAP
Teshome Kahsay is an Eritrean community leader in Sydney.
First, the information coming from the authorities, including the minsters of health is not clear. On the other hand, people interpreted the information in their own way
A majority of Australia’s African communities live in the western and southwest suburbs of Sydney’s hard-hit local government areas (LGAs) as they do in Melbourne’s northern and western suburbs, which account for a large chunk of Victoria’s COVID cases.
With mislaid fears and misleading information leading to hesitancy, leaders and other members of African communities saw an urgency to fight this scepticism before it takes foothold in the community.
Adamu Tefera is a former president of the Ethiopian Community Association in Victoria.
He says the community promoted vaccination using virtual meetings and distributing information through various networks in their language, and everyone pulled together.
Adamu Tefera, former president of Ethiopian Community Association in Victoria. Source: Supplied
“People of Ethiopian heritage who work in the community sector, particularly in health centres, are playing a vital role in encouraging and directly booking appointments for community members to get vaccinated,” he says.
Mr Tefera says with the prospect of normal life returning and fear of missing out on freedoms, including overseas travel when the restrictions are lifted, acted as an incentive for people to get the jab.
And the trend is positive.
We don’t have time for scepticism about the way out
"That is the question – if you don’t get vaccinated, what would be the way out? Will we be in lockdown forever? That’s not practical," he adds.
While the trend in the right direction is welcome news, many in the community admit it has been a slow start to defeat vaccine misinformation.
The recent death of two Eritrean women due to COVID-19 shocked the community and brought the pandemic home, spurring a rush to get vaccinated.
Dr Berhan Ahmed is CEO of Africause, an NGO responding to the challenges the African community faces in Australia.
“Without reaching hospital, they passed away, so that is telling a lot of stories for many. Recently this experience is coming home, and people are considering taking action, I tell you, within the Somali, Eritrean, Ethiopian and Oromo communities, you name it.
There isn’t one family from all those communities not touched by this crisis
He called the pandemic “a great equaliser” with governments recognising and acknowledging that everyone is important.
"COVID brought one thing with all its bad stories, that at least, everyone in society is important"
Dr Berhan Ahmed is CEO of Africause, an NGO advocating for African Community Source: SBS
"The state government invested in our languages, in our communities. This should have happened a long time ago,” Dr Ahmed adds.
Beyond COVID, he is also concerned about the far-reaching consequences for the African community if many of them are left unvaccinated, which could result in a backlash.
It will create repercussions that may leave our future generations impacted in employment and many other opportunities
"So, I hope our community takes action and becomes a part of the bigger role,” Dr Ahmed says.
He also mentions that dispelling vaccine hesitancy and changing people’s minds in a community which has many members with a low level of education, has been “a mountain to climb”.
Somali Healthcare Professionals is a newly-created organisation based in Melbourne that is at the forefront of defeating vaccine misinformation.
The Lambda coronavirus variant has been detected in Australia Source: AP
Dr Omar Elmi is a member and agrees with the positive trend about vaccination in the community.
Actually, there is a big change compared to the last few months
Dr Elmi says Somalis are an oral society, rumours can easily spread including that the vaccine development was rushed, adding to the hesitance.
“A number of men who contacted me personally, were very sceptical about the vaccines. I explained to them the steps and the process of the vaccine development and the difference between the vaccines. All of them were convinced and got vaccinated and we feel that there is a lot of change in attitudes,” he says.
Dr Elmi urges everyone to get vaccinated to protect the health of their loved ones and the wider community.
Produced in collaboration with SBS Tigrinya, SBS Dinka, SBS Swahili and SBS Amharic.
