El 9 de septiembre de 2021, el presidente Biden anunció un plan que requiere que todo el personal del programa Head Start se vacune contra el COVID-19. La serie Estrategias para la vacunación del personal apoya los programas en la planificación para cumplir con el requisito de vacunación del personal COVID-19. Vea esta lista de reproducción para escuchar a los líderes del programa destacar las estrategias, los procesos y las mejores prácticas que han utilizado para apoyar al personal con el requisito de la vacuna.
La Nación Navajo
La Nación Navajo
(En inglés)
Voices from the Field: Navajo Nation
[Music]
Dr. Bernadine Futrell: Hello, Head Start. This is Dr. Bernadine Futrell, the proud director of the Office of Head Start. And I am excited to welcome you to our fourth video in the series, Strategies for Staff Vaccination: Voices from the Field. This week, I have the great honor of introducing you to the Navajo Nation Head Start program.
Rolanda Billy: Navajo Nation Head Start has always been a community, family-type approach [Inaudible] program. A lot of it was coordinating services with local resource providers and a big support from our government, stemming from our Office of the President and Vice President.
Tama Nez: Our president did a lot of community visits. They did weekly meetings. What they shared were information about how many COVID cases there were.
Jonathan Hale: As far as Navajo, they are visual learners. A lot of the information that they had was through pamphlets and such and posters so that they could adjust to what was going on.
Rolanda: Providing pamphlets, bringing in health professionals, doing presentations. And ultimately, giving the resources to the employees so that they can make the best choice for themselves, for the students, and for the families they work with.
Tama: We have like 295 employees, and majority of them are vaccinated.
Rolanda: And again, it was a community effort. That’s what Head Start is built on. Working and collaborating with resources, looking at data.
Jonathan: What really moved people was your colleagues getting sick. There's instances where in other programs I'm well aware of, that colleagues have passed on due to not receiving the inoculation and also acquiring COVID-19. Having to go through those situations and trauma, I think it made people really consider – think about their own wellbeing, as well as their families. And with Navajo being multi-generational homes, you have children and you have elderly in certain homes, so you'd also have to think of them.
Even in my personal life today, remembering people that have passed on that were dear to me that were not in my household, but yet have passed on from COVID-19. You see how precious life is. Also being a participant of Head Start back in my early years as a toddler and also having my children go through Navajo Head Start, it reminds me of that. It reminds me of being a parent. I have a family to protect. I have grandchildren. I have a responsibility.
Rolanda: One of our pillars – our four pillars is “Sihasin,” which is hope. Hope for the legacy – the continued legacy of our people. The heritage in our culture, we hold children and elderly dear and close to our hearts. And it was in an effort to protect them, to protect the language, to protect who we are as Diné people. I think that was what pushed a lot of our educators into being vaccinated, was to give that hope and to give that opportunity back to our children in our Head Start program and Early Head Start programs here on the Navajo Nation.
CerrarEn este video, escuche a los líderes de la Nación Navajo hablar sobre la experiencia que han tenido con la vacunación exitosa del personal de Head Start al centrar sus mensajes en la comunidad y la familia. La Nación Navajo también confió en la ciencia y tradujo recursos educativos al diné, el idioma nativo de su comunidad (video en inglés). Obtenga ideas sobre cómo ayudar al personal a sentirse cómodo y seguro en su decisión de vacunarse con #SleeveUp4HeadStart (video en inglés).
Última actualización: July 3, 2023