"People thought we had bad intentions. Some even believed we would kidnap their children and turn them into eunuchs. We are always seen as beggars or troublemakers. We don't get respectable jobs. This was a chance to earn with self-respect - but more than that, it was a chance to serve society."
"Program organizers recognized unique traits among trans women that would be helpful in the outreach effort. They were fluent in multiple languages and deeply embedded in informal neighborhood networks. The women often knew when a child was born or when a mother was pregnant before the formal health system did."
"Trans women have conflicting reputations in India, as both modern-day outcasts and ancient bearers of blessings and good fortune for families and communities. Early days of the two-year pilot program were devoted to changing one estimation for the other."
The Sakhee Project recruited twelve trans women in Mumbai slum neighborhoods to increase vaccination rates among migrant children, primarily from Muslim communities. Initially facing skepticism and harmful stereotypes, the trans women workers overcame community resistance through persistent engagement. Program organizers recognized that trans women possessed valuable assets for outreach: multilingual abilities, deep informal network connections, and cultural skills like storytelling and humor. These women often had advance knowledge of births and pregnancies before formal health systems. Their trusted presence in communities transformed public health messaging into accessible conversations, ultimately achieving significant vaccination rate improvements over the two-year pilot program.
#vaccination-programs #trans-women-empowerment #community-health-outreach #migrant-communities #public-health-equity
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