Follow Ramesh's Journey

Today started with a pleasant visit with past District Governor of Rotary District 3100 and member of the India National PolioPlus Committee, Mr. Sudhir Gupta. Mr. Gupta was pleased to hear of the success of yesterday’s Sub-NID activities. After our meeting, Dr. Khan, Nima, and I drove to a rural village where we visited participants at a community centre. We were greeted with an overwhelming standing ovation and were welcomed with flowers. The villagers were very excited that we came to visit with them.

While we were visiting, I was able to share my experience with polio and encourage both participants and staff to live their dreams, have fun, and to continue to be community leaders by promoting the polio eradication program. We then left the community centre to participate in a house-to-house NID. The polio vaccination teams visit approximately 100 houses a day over the course of the week to deliver the polio vaccination to children under five years of age. The polio vaccine needs to be kept cool, so the container we used to carry it in was full of ice packs.

The team marks the main door of each residence with either a P or and an X. A P indicates that the child did indeed receive the polio vaccination, while an X indicates that they have not. Other information, which is also marked on the main door of the residence, is the date of the visit, and the total number of house visits the team made for the day.

After participating in the house-to-house polio vaccination activities, Nima and I said goodbye to Dr. Khan and all of the hard working team members. The team provided me with promotional goodies to take back to Canada so I can continue to promote the good work of Rotary’s PolioPlus program. After our goodbyes, hugs, pictures and many thank-yous, Nima and I took a four-hour drive back to Delhi where I will a flight back to Canada early tomorrow morning.

En-route to Delhi we took a break and stopped at a little place to get some food and chai. As I sat and ate my food, I noticed to a polio survivor who was crawling. He had something padding his knees and he had sandals on his hands. During my visit I was happy to learn that some of the Rotary clubs in India have organized polio corrective camps – which focus on providing polio survivors with corrective surgeries, braces, and crutches. The World Health Organization says that there are approximately 10-20 million polio survivors currently living around our world today. Many crawl around just like the one I saw today at that little food stop in Moradabad. We need to continue the fight against polio as a global community. If we don’t, millions more will be affected.