In 2010, Rwanda decided to make cervical cancer prevention a priority in a country where the disease was the most common form of cancer among women.

Determination and a strategy that included the many small communities across the country have led to 93 percent of girls now receiving a vaccine against cervical cancer, according to data from Rwanda’s ministry of health.

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The East African government partnered with pharmaceutical company Merck to vaccinate as many Rwandan girls as possible against human papillomavirus (HPV), which causes cervical cancer, according to TheLancet.

The company agreed to offer free vaccinations for girls in Rwanda for three years.

Resources were not the only obstacle that the government had to overcome. Cultural barriers existed.

HPV is a sexually transmitted infection and talking about sex is taboo in Rwanda, TandFonline reports.

Many parents were initially skeptical as incorrect rumors circulated about the vaccine causing infertility, according to Mosaicscience.

The government understood these challenges and developed a strategy to involve trusted individuals in communities across Rwanda, coupled with a media awareness campaign on radio and in print.

Using community and religious leaders, health workers and teachers to deliver the vaccines proved highly effective in spreading the message about the benefits of the vaccine and informing children and parents about the disease, CNN reports.

Teachers would tell children about the importance of the vaccine, who would then tell their parents, who had already have heard about the vaccine on the radio or at church.

The successful strategy was carried out over the last 10 years involving 45,000 health workers. It has translated into a 93-percent rate of immunization across the country against HPV, according to the World Health Organization.

Once the Merck funding ended in 2014, Gavi, a Swiss-based public-private global health partnership committed to increasing access to immunization in poor countries, agreed on a co-funding model with the Rwanda government.

Rwanda pays 20 percent of the cost of each dose, which is around $4.50, with Gavi paying the remainder.