Eradicating Polio in Nigeria

Aminu Ahmad sits on the side of the road intently watching his young apprentice welding a wheelchair.

"This is our workshop and 80% of the people here have disabilities, but we are working hard, just like anybody else," he explains.

Aminu was crippled as child by polio, a preventable disease that affected millions of children each year.

"I asked my mother why I was disabled, and she told me I was not immunized'" says Aminu.

While Aminu trains and employs young people affected by polio, and his best selling product is an innovative wheel chair, his real aim is to protect future generations from the disease.

Aminu is part of The Global Polio Eradication Initiative. This a public-private partnership led by national governments and spearheaded by the World Health Organization (WHO), Rotary International, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) that has reduced new infections by 99% since 1988. Now the disease is endemic in just 4 countries; Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Nigeria.
To completely eradicate the disease every child needs to be reached, and in some areas like Danlassa in Kano State resistance to vaccination remains. Here Aminu is slowly moving house-to-house speaking to parents, "We who have been affected with polio go and visit communities to explain to them that they should immunize their children."

As result of these communication campaigns Nigeria has made some remarkable progress. The number of new polio cases feel from 388 cases in 2009 to 21 in 2010—a 95 percent reduction.

Now Aminu is hopeful they will finally be successful, "In one or two years Nigeria can eradicate all polio."

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Nigeria
• Polio
• Africa
• Rotary
• Vaccination
• International Development
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• Gates Foundation
• public health
• Rotary International
• South

[scotlandguy]

Amazing short!