Bringing health closer to students: Vanuatu shows what School Health Week makes possible

When Eric Kalo’s son developed problems with his ears, getting care would normally mean travelling from their community into town – a journey that takes time and costs money.

This situation changed though during School Health Week, which was held at his son’s school in June this year. His son’s ears were checked at Natawa school and he received treatment on the spot. 

“It helps us a lot because we don't have to spend money on transport to town – we get treatment directly in our village,” Eric said.

For families like the Kalos, the ability to receive care right where their children live and learn makes all the difference. Across the Pacific island country of Vanuatu, children face health concerns ranging from malnutrition, oral and skin diseases and low immunization coverage, to mental health challenges and violence. For families in remote and rural communities, distance to health facilities and shortage of health workers can make timely care even harder to access. In Natawa, the local aid post can manage basic health needs, but more serious conditions may require families to travel farther for care. The very concept of School Health Week grew from a simple question: What if more of that essential support could be brought closer to children?

For families like Eric Kalo’s, School Health Week can bring health services closer to where children live and learn, reducing barriers to accessing care. © WHO / G. Meheut

Bringing health promotion and services into schools

^{School Health Week uses schools as a practical setting to bring health promotion, screening and other essential services closer to students. © WHO / G. Meheut} 

Schools are where children spend much of their day – and where health can directly affect their ability to learn. A child with a toothache may struggle to concentrate. A student who cannot see the blackboard clearly may quietly fall behind. An untreated ear problem can make it harder to listen and participate in lessons.

“Our children, who are the future of our nation, are facing many different sicknesses and challenges to accessing health services on time,” said Dr Santus Wari, Acting Director General of the Vanuatu Ministry of Health.

School Health Week uses the school setting to bring several kinds of support together: health promotion and disease prevention, screening and appropriate treatment, physical activity and referral for students who need further care.

“Every child should have the opportunity to learn, grow and thrive in good health,” said Dr Huong Tran, Director of the Division of Health Promotion, Disease Prevention and Control at the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for the Western Pacific. “School Health Week brings health services and health education together around children, in a place already central to their lives. The experience in Vanuatu is an important step towards building a practical approach that countries across the Western Pacific can adapt to their own needs and communities.”

From local concerns to shared action

School Health Week in Vanuatu was built on community engagement carried out in Sanma Province in 2025. Students, teachers, parents and caregivers, health and education authorities, community leaders and child protection representatives came together to identify a range of concerns affecting children, and discuss what could be done about these.

Local Health Promoting Schools Committees helped identify what students and families need most and gathered the right people around the table. The Ministries of Health and Education worked together with provincial teams, schools, local leaders, families and other partners to shape a response around those priorities.

Rather than creating an entirely new structure, communities drew on what they already had – local leadership, health workers, teachers, schools, existing services and supply chains, and community relationships – and brought those strengths together through School Health Week.

“In the past, health promoting school activities were led and driven by the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education,” said Dr Revite Kirition, WHO Country Liaison Officer for Vanuatu. “What's different this time is it’s being driven primarily by the community. We have an organizing committee within the community, also driven by the school and the provincial area health council.”

This meant communities were not simply the beneficiaries of School Health Week – they helped shape and organize how it worked.

What School Health Week looked like

^{Students moved through health stations offering screening, health information and selected services, helping identify needs and connect them with follow-up where necessary. © WHO / G. Meheut}

School Health Week was implemented at both elementary and secondary schools in Sanma Province, with activities held from 29 June to 1 July 2026 for students at Natawa School and from 6 to 10 July for students at Tata School.

At both schools, students were given booklets called “My Health Passport”, which they brought with them as they moved from station to station.

Health workers at these stations checked their eyes, ears, teeth, skin, nutrition and mental well-being. The students could even receive services such as deworming, immunizations and treatment for some conditions. Alongside these services, the children learnt about nutrition, oral health, malaria, violence prevention, hygiene, and other ways to protect their health, while also taking part in physical activity through sports, games and other group activities.

The students’ individual Health Passports were used to record the services they had received as well as findings and referrals, and helped teams track their participation. Feedback and simple before-and-after questions also captured what students had learnt and their experiences throughout the week.

The Health Passport also helped connect school-based screening with follow-up care. When further care was needed, parents could take their child to a health facility and ensure that needs identified at school and recorded in the booklet could be followed up.

What School Health Week achieved

A total of 364 students attended School Health Week 2026, receiving several of the core screenings and preventive services. Participation was broadly balanced between girls and boys. Students had their oral health, vision and hearing checked; hundreds received deworming procedures; and vaccinations and mental health screening were also provided. Some health concerns, including ear infections, were treated during the week itself.

Participating in School Health Week strengthened the students’ understanding of their own health. Children returned home talking about what they had learnt, and feedback showed that most found the experience to have been a useful and positive one. Their understanding also improved around issues such as protecting their teeth and the purpose of vaccines.

The implementation showed the value of addressing different health needs together in one familiar setting – combining screening, treatment, prevention, health education and referral – rather than treating each as a separate activity.

For families such as Eric Kalo’s, that meant care closer to home and an opportunity to take charge of their own health within the wider community setting. For health and education teams, it meant a clearer picture of students’ needs and the chance to gain practical experience in coordinating many different forms of support.

In a matter of days, School Health Week had reached hundreds of students with care and information, identified needs requiring further attention, connected families with follow-up, and given children knowledge they could carry home with them.

What made it work – and what others can learn from School Health Week

What made School Health Week possible was not a new system built from the ground up, but a community bringing together the people, resources and relationships that were already there.

At its centre was ever closer collaboration between the health and education sectors. National and provincial teams worked together to coordinate health services, personnel and participating schools. Port Olry Health Centre and other health partners contributed health workers and expertise, while schools organized their students and teachers.

Local leaders and Health Promoting Schools Committees connected communities with other local services as well as civil society organizations. For example, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) volunteers and the Butterfly Trust supported implementation and data work. WHO provided coordination, technical and operational support, documentation and communications support, while also helping strengthen local capacity for monitoring and evaluation – including using the information collected to learn from implementation and inform future activities.

Each stakeholder brought something different and valuable to the table. Together, they turned what was already available into one targeted, coordinated effort around students.

The Vanuatu experience offers practical lessons for everyone working to improve the health of children and communities:

• Start with local needs. Shape School Health Week around the health and well-being concerns affecting students and communities.
• Bring health and education together – and widen the circle. Ministries, local government, schools, families, communities, civil society and partners can combine different strengths to serve the same students.
• Build from what is already there. Existing health workers, teachers, services, community structures and relationships can become the foundation for action.
• Use schools as a bridge to care. Bring services and health information closer to students, while making referral and follow-up part of the approach.
• Generate data that can drive action. Monitoring and evaluation provided partners with valuable information on student participation, services delivered and health needs. The strong interest in the data showed a clear appetite among national and local partners for evidence to inform planning, decision-making and future scale-up. 
• Adapt and let communities lead. Different places have different contexts, needs and resources. Local ownership helps make the approach relevant and workable.

For governments and local leaders, Vanuatu’s experience shows that School Health Week can be built around local priorities, strengths and existing resources.

For partners, School Health Week shows how support can reinforce what communities and national systems are already putting in place.

And for families and students, the purpose is much simpler: making it easier for children to get the information, support and care they need to be healthy and learn well.

From Vanuatu to the Region

“Vanuatu’s experience shows how strong local leadership and collaboration among health, education, families and communities can enable better health and learning for every child,” said Dr Mark Jacobs, Director of Pacific Technical Support and WHO Representative to the South Pacific. “Pacific island countries can bring health services closer to children through approaches like School Health Week, which prioritize local needs and build on the strengths of schools and communities.”

Looking beyond Vanuatu, Dr Joana Madureira Lima, Coordinator of the Social Determinants and Healthy Settings unit at the WHO Regional Office for the Western Pacific, emphasized the opportunity for countries across the Region to take these lessons and make them their own.

“The opportunity now is for countries across the Region to build on what Vanuatu has learnt and to shape School Health Week around their own needs and communities,” she said. “It may look different from one place to another, but the goal is the same: helping more young people get the health support they need to stay well, participate actively in school, and reach their full potential.”

For Eric Kalo and his son, the benefit was immediate: care that once would have required a long and expensive journey was now available much closer to home.

For other countries across the Western Pacific, and indeed globally, Vanuatu offers something broader – practical lessons on how health and education can work together for the well-being of students, and how local strengths can be turned into action.

Vanuatu has shown what is possible. The next chapter belongs to the countries and communities that take these lessons forward – shaping their own path towards healthier students and brighter futures.