What if the biggest barrier to vaccination isn’t access? but trust !

Recently, our team encountered a household in Peshawar where seven children had never received a single dose of polio or routine immunization vaccines. For years, the family had refused every campaign visit. The challenge wasn’t distance, availability, or awareness. It was trust.

Instead of asking, “Why won’t they vaccinate?” we asked, “What are they worried about?”

That simple shift changed the entire conversation. Using an SBCC-led approach, we moved beyond messaging and focused on listening. We met the family’s decision-maker, the father, where he felt comfortable, we heard his concerns without judgment, and engaged trusted voices from within the community by engaging religious leaders, elders, and the local influencers.

There was no dramatic overnight change. Trust rarely works that way.

The first “yes” came for a single polio dose. Then another conversation followed. And another. Eventually, all seven children were vaccinated, transforming a chronic refusal household into a success story of protection and hope.

For us, this experience reinforced a powerful lesson: people don’t change behavior because they receive information; they change behavior when they trust the source of that information.

As Pakistan continues its fight against polio, the real heroes are often the frontline workers who return to the same door, day after day, armed not with arguments, but with patience, empathy, and belief in every child’s right to a healthy future. Country remains in focus for improving immunization coverage, particularly among zero-dose (ZD) and under-immunized children.

MERF Pakistan with support from Gates Foundation is successfully running project for eradicating polio through a vast team of dedicated individuals who proudly support the community change, demonstrating how strategic Social and Behavior Change Communication (SBCC) can turn resistance into resilience and hesitation into action. Under this project, MERF is managing 15 civil dispensaries in Super High-Risk Union Councils (SHRUCs) in Peshawar district, to support eradication of polio through delivery of integrated health services including PHC services, routine immunization, free OPD consultations, medicine provision, and MNCH.

Every vaccinated child is protected. Every protected child brings us one step closer to a Polio–Free Pakistan.