panaji a peoples movement to combat vaccine hesitancy has been gaining momentum in assolna where the panchayat church medical fraternity and volunteers have been working together to ensure lives are saved during the pandemicthe village has been working systematically since last month to get its residents especially the most vulnerable vaccinated regular meetings are held online to clear misconceptions about the vaccine and to work out strategies to ensure no one is left outthe panchayat has also been distributing vaccinated assolnekar badges to vegetable and fish vendors who have taken the jabsarpanch xavier almeida said certificatesposters are distributed to shopkeepers commercial establishments and restaurants where all the staff has been vaccinatedthese specially designed certificates welcome to safe shopping all who work here are vaccinated and vaccinatedwelcome to safe restaurant all those who work here are vaccinated keep assolna healthy and covid free which are pasted at the premises act as an assurance to customers and promote the vaccination message he saidthe most difficult task for the team was establishing the baseline data of the resident population and finding out how many of them have been vaccinated they also took it upon themselves to get those who come into the village for work vaccinated and have been taking into account youth who have just turned 18 and even that of tenants living in the villageassolna resident and volunteer simitra rodrigues said the parish pastoral council collected information of the resident population noting down those vaccinated covid positive and reasons for not taking the vaccine and have been working together with panch members who are mapping these against the electoral rolls to ensure nobody is missed they have also found that around 64 of the population tested positive recently and will have to wait till they are eligible to take the vaccine dr ira almeida and dr nickson fernandes at the primary health centre chinchinim have been supporting the vaccination drivesparish priest of assolna church fr sertorio rodrigues has been sending out whatsapp messages to the faithful in konkani motivating them to take the jab and protect themselves some are hesitant and others afraid he saidi tell them that if they dont get vaccinated we wont be able to open our church he told toi