Fighting polio

Compared to 2006, when there were no new cases of polio in Sudan, there were 18 new reported cases in early 2009. Because of this alarming development, the Sudanese Red Crescent Society (SRCS) has joined the newly initiated polio vaccination campaign. Other actors are the World Health Organization, the Sudanese Ministry of Health and UNICEF, which provide funding and medicine, while the SRCS is responsible for the volunteers performing the vaccinations. Since this is a door to door-campaign, the volunteers need to be trained in how to vaccinate, which children are in the target group, how to rapport and how to mark the visited houses.

Amona marking a visited house in Qadisiyya

Door to door in Qadisiyya

Afaf showing Ingvild a rapport in Umm al-qurra

Last week, Ingvild and I attended a training session and learned that all children, from one day-old babies to five year-old children, were to be vaccinated orally against polio. Babies between six and 12 months get blue vitamin A-pills, the older children get red pills. Quite easy, we thought.

When actually participating in the campaign with the volunteers this week, we soon discovered how hard it can be to get children to open their mouths – especially when it’s their first time dealing with a scary khawaja (white person). It was also quite challenging physically, we were walking around for four-seven hours every day in the outskirts of Port Sudan in 36 degrees. It is quite impressive that the volunteers do this job from 7 a.m. until 5 p.m. for three days straight.

It feels good to do participate in a project like the polio vaccination campaign, and next month we will be working with the volunteers in Haya and Durudeb, two smaller towns in the Red Sea State.

Vaccinating a little girl in Umm al-qurra

Girls showing their blue fingernails, the sign for a vaccinated child