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| President Michael and Heather Fagg |
Michael’s father was affected by polio and Michael started their talk with two quotes which he and Heather believe summed up their experience in India: “What a difference a day makes” and “You can travel 1000 miles to enable a child to walk a mile … ”
Background. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative was launched in 1988 when polio was paralysing 350,000+ children annually. Since then, 2bn-plus worldwide have been immunised against polio. In India, since introducing its NID in 1995, the number of polio cases has reduced by almost 99.5% from 500 cases/day. As many as 179m children are vaccinated each NID so Rotary’s voluntary help is needed. Most of India is now polio-free, except for Northern India (2 regions/49 cases known 2010).
Polio as a disease/PolioPlus. The massive national immunisation programme has created a culture of disease prevention, rather than treatment of the highly infectious disease as it occurs (it can cause paralysis within hours). RI launched its PolioPlus campaign in 1995 with an initial pledge of US$120m; polio was paralysing more than 1000 children/day (350,000 world-wide). To date, RI has provided US$800m+ to the campaign.
India’s socio-economic status. India’s living conditions, especially in the North (high rates of malnutrition, unhygienic living conditions, diarrhoea and 500,000 babies born per month), bring fresh challenges with so many new babies to be vaccinated each National Immunisation Day. The large number of people travelling on any given day – with children – poses more obstacles. Rotarians and Polio workers have to be creative in their efforts to vaccinate every child: going door-to-door is a time-tested method.
Vaccine storage & availability are also challenges, with the vaccine becoming active if not stored at 4° - it was not having enough correctly-stored vaccine available that caused the last-minute change of NID date.
Michael and Heather’s itinerary. In India for three weeks in total, their polio work involved seven days - organised by RD 3010 (123 Clubs – meeting every day, including Sundays). Day One was an orientation meeting with all the participating Clubs (including England, Holland, Italy, Korea + NZ) on what to expect on NID. Day Two was an awareness rally to promote polio eradication in Delhi slums – “a magnificent occasion – led by camels, elephants, decorated rickshaws, many schoolchildren with banners, balloons and whistles, entertainers and music.” Day Three was a visit to a Health Centre sponsored by two Delhi Rotary Clubs and one Inner Wheel Club. Children were able to get free medical and optical checks, with free medication to take home. The Centre also provided 12-month training for employment through courses such as those for sewing and craft skills – with a sewing machine + access to a start-up business loan as the prize for successful completion; young men are taught computer skills.
Day Four was a lunch at St. Stephens Hospital, hosted by Rotarians, with a presentation by Dr Matthew Varghese on corrective surgery for polio victims. This was followed by ward visits to meet patients who had had their limbs lengthened and straightened to enable them to walk with callipers and able “to take up a fruitful life.” (Many had spent their lives crawling or using skateboards to get around …). Costs: all costs are covered by Rotary or through Dr Varghese’s personal fund-raising (working 20hr-days, “enabling the differently-abled” to make them independent).
Day Five: National Immunisation Day (the vaccination of children under five) – where Michael and Heather et al “got to do what they had come for.” Split into groups of 4-5, the visiting Rotarians travelled with local Club Rotarians to health camps in different areas of Delhi’s slums. Michael and Heather were in a group with three other New Zealanders and were treated “like Royalty,” as guests not workers. After instructions from the nurses, they all helped administer the two drops needed per child or baby. With “hundreds of people milling around, the children had their pinkies marked with a felt-tip pen to show they had been vaccinated.” Each child was then given a Rotary gift of a pen from the visiting Rotarians, plus a small toy from the local Rotarians. The group of 32 Rotarians vaccinated approximately 1000 children that day (NID: 170m vaccinated thru India). “It was an overwhelming, humbling experience which we will never forget. It was a privilege to be a part of it, ” Michael said. They had plenty of time to see New Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, Calcutta and Siliguri. The whole tour was organised by an English company, Darjeeling Tours Ltd. of Doncaster, which is closely associated with Rotary and specialises in tours to India
