The kids are all right

This is the best thing you’ll read today.

Patrick Kisindja spends his days combating vaccine hesitancy. Sometimes he calls people, other times he drives to their homes to explain the science behind the shot.

Then, in the afternoon, Kisindja drives teens to the Harris County Public Health vaccination clinic at Dick Graves Park.

The 21-year-old southwest Houston resident serves as an ambassador at the faith-based nonprofit reVision.

Founded in 2011 at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church, the organization provides mentors, case managers and community support for the city’s most disconnected youth, including refugees, those experiencing homelessness and members of the juvenile detention system.

Because of their circumstances, members of the reVision program are especially vulnerable to COVID-19. So for the past few months, the nonprofit has focused on helping them get their shots. Ambassadors like Kisindja are integral to reVision’s program, which uses peers to lead the vaccination effort for teens.

The people Kisindja spends his days informing about the coronavirus vaccine? The parents of students in the program.

Often, he visits them three or four times before they acquiesce. Many are refugees, and he often reminds them — sometimes in Swahili — that they were vaccinated against other diseases before settling in the U.S.

“It protects you,” Kisindja said. “You’re better with that. You don’t want to end up in the hospital.”

Kisindja uses every tool in his arsenal to persuade parents to sign consent forms for their children to get the shot.

“We’re doing it for the kids,” Kisindja continued. “And that’s what reVision is all about — helping kids and keeping them safe.”

There’s more, so read the rest. Patrick Kisindja has done more good for the people of Texas in the past few months than Ted Cruz would do in a dozen lifetimes. He and his friends are doing it one person at a time, though as you’ll see there were some events that greatly helped their cause. If you need numbers to be convinced:

[reVision CEO Charles Rotramel] hired four former reVision students, now in college, to serve in the program. Methodist provided their training — going in depth with how the vaccine works and also the different categories of vaccine hesitancy.

“In June, we really just turned them loose,” Rotramel said. “I didn’t know if it would work, but we felt like, let’s just go all in and see what we could do.”

Besides, he had no idea how else they would ever reopen reVision without everyone being vaccinated.

And, ultimately, Rotramel had faith.

“I had a firm belief and trust in young people that they would make the right decision,” he said.

[…]

The youth who showed up to reVision’s first clinic in July were rewarded with a full day of fun at Main Event.

Then, those kids shared their photos on social media, and everything changed.

“That broke the dam,” Rotramel said. “Then, we had a flood of kids who wanted to get vaccinated.”

Before long, the ambassadors shuttled youth to their shots almost every day. By the time school started, about 70 percent of reVision students were fully vaccinated.

“And that was our goal,” Rotramel said. “We had been so concerned about them going back to in-person school in an unvaccinated space.”

On Aug. 12, Rotramel was able to finally open the doors to the reVision community center. The only people invited inside were fully vaccinated.

“That turned another corner because everyone wanted to be in the space,” he said. “That was moving to us.”

The hallways were again full of chatter and laughter, from all age groups and in a variety of languages.

“It’s that joyful noise we really hadn’t heard,” Rotramel said.

Now, nearly 90 percent of reVision students are vaccinated.

Just fantastic. We could use a whole lot more of this. Thanks, y’all.

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One Response to The kids are all right

  1. David Fagan says:

    5 days and counting………

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