Polio days 2011

 The country-wide polio campaign is ongoing in 2011.  This is one of the few countries in the world where cases of polio are still found.  Eradicating polio in the whole world is one of the goals of big development strategists that wrote the Millenium Development Goals.  People get excited about this one because the effects of polio are devastating, immunizations have erased it from most of the globe, and it seems simple enough to spread that vaccine further and see the disease eradicated completely. 

In this country UNICEF leads the way in implementing the polio vaccine campaign.  They have enormous grants from foreign governments to eradicate polio in this rugged country where 75% of the inhabitants are living in small isolated villages.  It takes an immense effort and a huge number of people to spread the vaccine campaign across the whole country, and they attempt to do it all in 3 days each year.  This year’s campaign is March 13-15.

I’ve become friends with the leader of UNICEF here, and had a talk with him last week about the upcoming campaign.  He told me that the donors of past years have put a lot of pressure on finishing the eradication of polio in this country this year, because they are tired of paying such a high price for the effort here.  My friend is concerned that this year will be no different than that past ones, the problems of corruption and insecurity will again plague their efforts to do such a huge task in 3 days.  In order to spread the campaign across the entire population it is necessary for vaccinators to go province by province, district by district, valley by valley, village by village, door to door, to every child under age 5. 

To move freely through some districts the vaccinators will have to negotiate with both legitimate and shadow governors.  To access some valleys they may have to pay heavy bribes to the insurgents in control, and still be in high security risk.  To enter the villages and homes they have to convince suspicious elders that they are there to help their people, and earn permission to deal with women and children.  To actually give the vaccine to every child under 5, however, is the greatest challenge of all, because any child that can, will flee and hide when they see syringes come out!  Seriously though, it is hard for some families to trust that the vaccinators have good, not malicious intentions.  If one child is hidden, does not receive the vaccination, and later gets polio because some bordering territories also have it, the disease is not eradicated. 

Be in prayer from March 13-15 for all the thousands of people involved in administering the polio campaign across the country.  It is a massive, massive endeavor, with huge challenges, but the payoff of success would be worth every dollar put into the campaign.  Pray that this country would soon be free of a disease that many nations have all but forgotten.