Souliya Channavong is a Vaccine Preventable Diseases and Immunization Officer at the World Health Organization Lao Country Office. In this role, she coordinates with the Lao Ministry of Health on the immunization program for both COVID-19 and routine vaccines.

She also is responsible for monitoring the Adverse Event Following Immunization (AEFI) surveillance, investigation, and causality assessment, as well as strengthening and capacity building for healthcare workers regarding the AEFI surveillance system.

At the start of the country’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign, she initiated and managed a team of 20+ volunteers to support the Ministry of Health in organizing mass vaccination sites.

She also led 40+ university students on a house-to-house vaccination project in rural areas of Laos.

Souliya believes that primary healthcare is a human right and that vaccination is a crucial part of disease prevention.

This motivates her efforts to provide essential health services to populations that are hard to reach, often due to ethnic disparities or limited infrastructure. She has developed creative means to educate communities about health, such as using Hmong community influencers in a video to overcome vaccination hesitancy.

She also enjoys creating graphics, content, and video to empower young people.