On November 5, the teams behind the Adolescent COVID-19 Vaccination Centre at The International School of Kuala Lumpur (ISKL) in Ampang Hilir celebrated the successful conclusion of the clinic. During the five weeks the clinic was in operation more than 11,000 first and second doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID vaccine were administered to students aged 12-17 years as part of Malaysia’s National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme.
YBhg. Datuk Dr. Param Jeeth Singh, State Director of Health, Federal Territory Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya Health Department who visited the Centre for its opening day on September 29, 2021, described it as “An important milestone in our fight against COVID-19”.
In addition to the involvement of the team at ISKL, teams from the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, District Health Office, NGT Solutions and ProtectHealth Corporation (a private medical subsidiary of the Ministry of Health) have worked closely together since day one to vaccinate as many students as possible.
The Education Director and Private Education Unit of the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur Education Department (JPWPKL) expressed their “Heartiest gratitude to ISKL for all the hard work, sacrifice, time and space you have extended to our schools during the vaccination exercise at ISKL. We hope that ISKL will continue to serve the community in the future and become an example for others to follow should the need arise.”
ISKL was honored to receive a visit from Datuk J.L. Solomon, Executive Chairman of NGT Solutions (M) Sdn Bhd, who presented ISKL’s Head of School, Mr. Rami Madani with a plaque and expressed his appreciation for the school’s support and cooperation to ensure the smooth running of the Vaccination Centre for the wider community.
Mr. Madani said, “We were delighted to have this opportunity to work in partnership with authorities and to support neighbouring schools as well as our own. It speaks to ISKL’s mission of working in partnership with communities around us.” He continued, “We are extremely appreciative of our parent and staff volunteers who answered our call to help. Their response and willingness to help typifies ISKL’s spirit of community involvement and care for others. We are also delighted to have the support from parents and staff from neighbouring schools – it is a wonderful example of communities working together in partnership”.
On arrival at the Centre, students were greeted by the friendly faces of parent and staff volunteers from ISKL and surrounding schools who came daily to help with registration and screening before the vaccines were administered. Over 100 volunteers gave up their time to support the effort and were praised for their efforts and thanked at a Volunteer Appreciation event, also held on the last day.
ISKL parent and volunteer, Lynette MacDonald, who helped out at the Centre on a regular basis, said she was thrilled to have the opportunity to support the vaccination rollout, “It has been so rewarding to be part of the team and help with the fight against COVID. There has been a wonderful feeling of camaraderie amongst everyone working at the Centre and it has been so enjoyable to meet parents and students from schools in the area. I have loved seeing so many happy faces especially when their second dose was completed!”
Among those to receive the vaccine was fifteen-year-old ISKL student Ms. Rika Singh who said, “I think it’s great that ISKL is a Vaccination Centre because we have such great facilities and it’s good to be used for the ISKL community as well as the KL community so I was really glad that we got approved as a Centre”. More than 92% of ISKL students aged 12 and above have now been vaccinated.
In addition to serving a large number of private and international schools in the district, with the approval of the District Health Office, the team was able to arrange for the vaccination of more than 600 students from over 15 different NGOs and Refugee Learning Centers in Kuala Lumpur. This again involved the help of parent and staff volunteers who coordinated arrangements with the Centres. With the support of ISKL’s bus contactor, Pandu Jaya, a bus service was arranged to transport students to and from the Centre. While the school’s Vaccination Centre has now been transformed back into a gym, ISKL’s long-term partnerships with refugee communities continue with the support of the school’s High School student community partnership clubs.
In line with ISKL’s philosophy of inclusion, the Vaccination Centre was also equipped to administer vaccines to students in the district who require special care.
ISKL was selected as the first international school Vaccination Centre in Kuala Lumpur. Its large gymnasium was transformed into a clinic with the capacity to administer around 1,000 vaccinations daily. The Centre was in operation from September 29-November 5, 2021.
This content is provided by The Society of the International School of Kuala Lumpur.
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