An alternative title to this story might have been “Why you should attend a Rotary International Conference”. That is where Gillian, the current President of the Mermaid Beach Rotary Club and the Polio Plus Chair of our District, met fellow lady Rotarians from Sandringham, VIC. She was enthused to join a team to administer the Polio vaccine in Moradabad, an industrial town in Uttar Pradesh, some 170 Km east of New Delhi, India.And the rest, as they say, is history? Far from it! The work Gillian and her co-travellers did, as with all the Polio Plus efforts, will have ongoing effect: the ultimate eradication of the Polio virus. But, how do you round up the children, 5 years old or younger, in an Indian city, including those living in a slum? By telling them to be at such-and-such place by XX:00 hours? No! Together with the local Rotary Club and the town’s government, you organise a march through the town to advertise the event. You put a booth in a very busy main street. Then you apply the vaccine (orally, 2 drops), and paint their “pinky” fingernail purple. Other than the obvious reason, this is to ensure they don’t come back a second time to collect the soft toy each child gets as a present… 😊 Helped by local health workers, they would even stop motorbikes with small kid passengers, they applied some 295 doses on just the first day. Then, onto the slum areas…
Gillian went there in 2015, 2016, 2018 and would have returned again in 2019, but “the Indian Government had run out of vaccine”.
Anti-vaxxers? “Of all people, only one refused” Gillian declared. Officially, India is Polio free since 2014, but as there are still cases in Afghanistan and Pakistan, eternal vigilance is the word. By the way: how do you determine whether a child is 5 years old or younger? “You ask them to reach with their left arm over their head to touch the right ear. If they are younger, they can't do it” she said. Come on! Next time you meet a toddler, find out yourself!
Gillian’s PowerPoint pictorial (in PDF format) is available for download - see Download section on the right. (Photo: Gillian with President Doug Lipp)