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Australian Committee for UNICEF Ltd.
Australian Committee for UNICEF Ltd.
02/06/2012 | Press release
Small steps to eradicate a big disease
distribué par noodls le 02/05/2012 21:54
In January 2012, Bohdana Szydlik, UNICEF Australia
Communicatons Officer travelled to India to witness
some of UNICEF's polio eradication work first
hand.
Spreading far and wide to eliminate polio
On a rooftop in the outskirts of Varanasi in north-east India, 14 mothers sit in the hot sun with their children as a woman uses a UNICEF flip chart. She explains how to recognise different diseases and the importance of the vaccinations that will protect children against them.
The young woman is Shamin Ara, a UNICEF community mobilisation coordinator, who has been in this role since 2007. She works with 50 families in her assigned area communicating to parents the need to immunise every child against polio.
The flip chart she's using covers topics from looking after oneself during pregnancy to the importance of immunisation and education. Through these face-to-face community discussions she also prepares and maintains accurate lists of young children, tracks expectant mothers and newborns and works with local religious leaders and influential community members to ensure the message gets across.
It's hard to believe that just two years ago India had more polio cases than any other country in the world, 741 cases in total. In 2011 the number of cases was just 1. On 13 January India celebrated the first anniversary of its last case of polio and will hopefully soon be declared polio free, taking the number of polio-endemic countries down to just three (Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan).
It's partly thanks to UNICEF's Social Mobilisation Network involving community mobilisation coordinators like Shamin that the campaign to eradicate polio has been so successful.
I ask the mothers how they find these sessions. They explain that they are "very interesting and it's useful to know the importance of vaccination, what is good to do and when things (vaccination rounds) are happening".
A community leading the way
As we weave our way down a small paved street in Mangalpur, a small rural village near Varanasi in India, we come across a magic show. Children and men are gathered around to watch as a magician makes a young boy disappear.
But where are all the women I wonder? Around the corner I find them. About thirty mothers, young girls, grandmothers and children are gathered on the steps of a building listening intently as a young woman describes to the group symptoms of different diseases, including polio and measles.
The young woman is called Jeenat and, like Shamin, she is a community mobilisation coordinator. A local in Mangalpur, Jeenat works with UNICEF and her community to educate them on the importance of immunising their children against polio.
Jeenat asks the group about hand washing after going to the toilet - do any of them wash their hands regularly? There are a few shy laughs and smiles at the direct address of a little-discussed topic. She describes the benefits of hand washing, how it can protect from diseases, especially the polio virus which is spread through bad sanitation and hygiene practices.
Many of these women will return to their families and share what they've heard. The information that each one of them has received might be the only thing that convinces their family to vaccinate their children and change their hygiene practices. These sessions aim to empower women with the confidence and knowledge needed to enact changes within their own community.
"It's very beneficial to the community and our families," one woman explains to me. "Before, no one told us about these things (handwashing, sanitation and immunisation) but now we know."
The sessions also provide an opportunity to discuss other community issues and big achievements are being made. One woman tells me all the children in this area attend primary school.
Tackling local taboos
Around the corner from this meeting we later meet H. Rahman, Imam of the local Mosque and Muslim community leader. Among some families in the village there has been hesitation to have children vaccinated due to fears of impotency or side effects such as fever. As a leader in his community H. Rahman believes all children to be immunised against polio. He makes regular announcements at his mosque encouraging mothers to have their children vaccinated. H. Rahman is just one Muslim leader that UNICEF has been working with to ensure messages about the importance of vaccination are heard in all communities.
"Now it is improving. Before nobody was interested in vaccination but now people are taking these services. Before, people were making excuses not to have their children immunised. Now all children in the community have been immunised," says Mr H Rahman.
Reaching further
On the outskirts of Varanasi in north-east India, many families live and work seasonally in brick kilns. UNICEF has identified these children and the children of other transient or nomadic families as being particularly vulnerable and special care is taken to ensure that they don't fall through the cracks and miss immunisation.
Sixty-four families live for part of the year at this one brick kiln in basic blocks of brick huts. Rekhrm and Domeshwrir have two children. They have lived at the brick kiln for four to five months and in the monsoon season will return to their home state of Chhattisgarh. Their daughter, three-year-old Ragindra, was vaccinated against polio during one of the UNICEF vaccination rounds that visits the kilns in this area. Her mother heard about the vaccinations when a health worker came and spoke to her, as well as at various community meetings.
It is of great credit to everyone involved that accurate records are kept of even these children, something made possible only by the UNICEF community mobilisation program that ensures that every door, no matter how isolated, is reached.
Spreading far and wide to eliminate polio
On a rooftop in the outskirts of Varanasi in north-east India, 14 mothers sit in the hot sun with their children as a woman uses a UNICEF flip chart. She explains how to recognise different diseases and the importance of the vaccinations that will protect children against them.
The young woman is Shamin Ara, a UNICEF community mobilisation coordinator, who has been in this role since 2007. She works with 50 families in her assigned area communicating to parents the need to immunise every child against polio.
The flip chart she's using covers topics from looking after oneself during pregnancy to the importance of immunisation and education. Through these face-to-face community discussions she also prepares and maintains accurate lists of young children, tracks expectant mothers and newborns and works with local religious leaders and influential community members to ensure the message gets across.
It's hard to believe that just two years ago India had more polio cases than any other country in the world, 741 cases in total. In 2011 the number of cases was just 1. On 13 January India celebrated the first anniversary of its last case of polio and will hopefully soon be declared polio free, taking the number of polio-endemic countries down to just three (Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan).
It's partly thanks to UNICEF's Social Mobilisation Network involving community mobilisation coordinators like Shamin that the campaign to eradicate polio has been so successful.
I ask the mothers how they find these sessions. They explain that they are "very interesting and it's useful to know the importance of vaccination, what is good to do and when things (vaccination rounds) are happening".
A community leading the way
As we weave our way down a small paved street in Mangalpur, a small rural village near Varanasi in India, we come across a magic show. Children and men are gathered around to watch as a magician makes a young boy disappear.
But where are all the women I wonder? Around the corner I find them. About thirty mothers, young girls, grandmothers and children are gathered on the steps of a building listening intently as a young woman describes to the group symptoms of different diseases, including polio and measles.
The young woman is called Jeenat and, like Shamin, she is a community mobilisation coordinator. A local in Mangalpur, Jeenat works with UNICEF and her community to educate them on the importance of immunising their children against polio.
Jeenat asks the group about hand washing after going to the toilet - do any of them wash their hands regularly? There are a few shy laughs and smiles at the direct address of a little-discussed topic. She describes the benefits of hand washing, how it can protect from diseases, especially the polio virus which is spread through bad sanitation and hygiene practices.
Many of these women will return to their families and share what they've heard. The information that each one of them has received might be the only thing that convinces their family to vaccinate their children and change their hygiene practices. These sessions aim to empower women with the confidence and knowledge needed to enact changes within their own community.
"It's very beneficial to the community and our families," one woman explains to me. "Before, no one told us about these things (handwashing, sanitation and immunisation) but now we know."
The sessions also provide an opportunity to discuss other community issues and big achievements are being made. One woman tells me all the children in this area attend primary school.
Tackling local taboos
Around the corner from this meeting we later meet H. Rahman, Imam of the local Mosque and Muslim community leader. Among some families in the village there has been hesitation to have children vaccinated due to fears of impotency or side effects such as fever. As a leader in his community H. Rahman believes all children to be immunised against polio. He makes regular announcements at his mosque encouraging mothers to have their children vaccinated. H. Rahman is just one Muslim leader that UNICEF has been working with to ensure messages about the importance of vaccination are heard in all communities.
"Now it is improving. Before nobody was interested in vaccination but now people are taking these services. Before, people were making excuses not to have their children immunised. Now all children in the community have been immunised," says Mr H Rahman.
Reaching further
On the outskirts of Varanasi in north-east India, many families live and work seasonally in brick kilns. UNICEF has identified these children and the children of other transient or nomadic families as being particularly vulnerable and special care is taken to ensure that they don't fall through the cracks and miss immunisation.
| Domeshqrir's home with her husband and two children at a brick kiln on the outskirts of Varanasi. ©UNICEF/Szydlik |
Sixty-four families live for part of the year at this one brick kiln in basic blocks of brick huts. Rekhrm and Domeshwrir have two children. They have lived at the brick kiln for four to five months and in the monsoon season will return to their home state of Chhattisgarh. Their daughter, three-year-old Ragindra, was vaccinated against polio during one of the UNICEF vaccination rounds that visits the kilns in this area. Her mother heard about the vaccinations when a health worker came and spoke to her, as well as at various community meetings.
It is of great credit to everyone involved that accurate records are kept of even these children, something made possible only by the UNICEF community mobilisation program that ensures that every door, no matter how isolated, is reached.
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