When a kindergartener asks her mom daily when it’s time for “more shots,” you know a public health initiative was a success.
International Community School (ICS) hosted two COVID-19 vaccination clinics this year, administering 357 doses to families through partner organizations IRC, CORE, GSU, and the Refugee Women’s Network at the school.
None of Nel Mang’s four kids cried when they received their first and second doses at the school, and the fifth, too young to get vaccinated yet, looked on with interest.
“It is safer to get the vaccine than not get it,” she said. “Nobody should be afraid of it. Even Mary wants more shots!”
Mary attends kindergarten at ICS with her brother Hau Son, 3rd grade.
The family arrived in the United States in December of 2017 after living in Malaysia for nine years. Some aspects of life remain constant for the family — in both countries, dad works at a restaurant where he’s known for dim sum soup. Mom stays home to cook, clean, wash, and feed her family, and the kids spend weeks at an academic school in free time play with th. And in both countries, the family relies on access to medical care.
“In Malaysia, you can go anywhere. You do not need to worry about the children…you just tell someone to take care of the children. You cannot find that kind of person here, you have to pay them, but the good thing is all the children have government’s support here,” Nel Mang explained.
Medicare, government health insurance, drew her family to the United States. Hau Son, now a healthy aspiring soccer player, spent months of his childhood at a time in an intensive care unit in a Malaysian hospital due to severe breathing issues related to asthma.
“I asked God to end his suffering, and I was sleepless because of taking care of him,” his mom said.
This came at a financial cost as well. “My brothers also supported our family. It was more costly to go to hospital than clinics. we could not eat meat and most of the time, we only ate potatoes and eggs.”
Eventually, a doctor flew with the family on the flight to the U.S., where they were entrusted to a caseworker who provided them with more healthcare resources. Hau Son hasn’t needed breathing aids in two years, but was still eager to get vaccinated as an extra protection when ICS hosted a superhero themed public vaccination clinic.
This clinic was the first of its kind in a DeKalb County school, offering a $100 incentive to anyone getting vaccinated, regardless of insurance status.
"There are many barriers to vaccination that people with privilege take for granted...This is the most groundbreaking and collaborative effort happening in the deep South, and we’re finding that incentives work."
-Dekalb County Commission Vaccine Response Liaison Clare Schexnyder
At the clinic, Nel Mang described the practical plans she had for the incentive money: most will go towards groceries to supplement her family’s food stamps, and some will go towards the mortgage on a house her family has owned since 2020.
The next week, I asked her if they’ve spent their cash cards from the vaccine clinic the way she planned. Ms. Mung laughed.
“On the way home from school, my son said, ‘Mommy Mommy, I wanna eat McDonald’s,’ so we treated the children.”
>> Watch a video recap on the January 2022 vaccination clinic
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