A polio-free Pakistan: turning the dream into reality

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), polio eradication drives in Pakistan can be very challenging endeavours. Approaching marginalised groups in remote areas of the country is a hard enough task, but perhaps the biggest challenge for anti-polio Health Workers is overcoming the cultural and social challenges peculiar to these communities.

Sikandar Khan is an Active Citizen and an Active Citizens training facilitator. Sikandar and his youth group, Movement for Rural Development Organization (MRDO) shared their experience of working for polio awareness and eradication with a rural community with us. Sikandar and his group members are from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), a conservative region of Pakistan. The group selected a village in a remote area of KPK to launch their Social Action Project.

According to Sikandar, communities in this region are particularly tight-knit. Like all tight-knit communities, they are not very open to advances by strangers. Although members of these communities are known for their warmth and hospitability, it does take them a little time to start trusting people who are not community members.

A major hurdle faced by the group was changing opinions and attitudes of the community members formed because of misconceptions about the polio vaccination campaign. One popular myth about the campaign is that the polio vaccine causes infertility and sterility. The group members organised awareness sessions with the village elders and faith leaders to address these misconceptions and highlighted the need for vaccinating young children.

The outcome of these sessions was very favourable for the group’s project. Most of the elders and faith leaders were successfully persuaded to convince the community members to have their children vaccinated.

The group also enlisted the help of Lady Health Workers (LHW) to administer the vaccine to the children – as all male health worker teams are generally mistrusted by conservative communities in Pakistan. Ultimately 39 families out of 54 had their children vaccinated against polio.

MRDO now plans to return to the village to try and convince the remaining 15 families to get their children vaccinated against the disease.

Youth group shines in Umerkot

Environmental pollution is a problem that the citizens of Umerkot have long since been plagued with. Shine Active Youth Group decided that enough was enough. They started a social action project to spread awareness about the dangers of living in a polluted atmosphere and to take steps to minimize environmental pollution. They concentrated mainly on the lack of green spaces in the city, and inadequate sanitation facilities.

Since Umerkot has a very high illiteracy rate, the group members made a conscious effort to personally interact with the members of the community as much as possible, and to explain their cause to them and the dangers of living in a polluted environment. Shine Active Youth Group held meetings with community members to get the message about their cause across and to gather more support for it. They also distributed pamphlets in an effort to reach out to people whom they did not get a chance to meet.

The group also presented their idea for planting more trees and plants to local and international NGOs, and were provided with plants and saplings by them. About a hundred plants and saplings were planted – mostly in girls’ schools which lacked greenery by members of the group. Two community members with entrepreneurial leanings were also talked into starting a nursery in the city with their personal funds.

The group members also reached out to the women of the community and made an effort to educate them about disposing of trash in a safe and sanitary manner, and not out in the open in their street.

The Tehsil Municipal Administration (TMA) was also approached, and the group successfully campaigned for the removal of five rubbish heaps from the city limits. The issue of two blocked drainage pipes was also successfully resolved. The TMA was also persuaded to place rubbish bins at specific locations from where the city dump trucks could collect the waste and dispose of it properly.

Working together for a greener city

Sonia is an Active citizen from Bahawalpur who felt the acute shortage of greenery in her city. She decided to start a Social Action Project in her community with an aim to get people from her community involved in working for a city with more trees, plants, and flowers.

Her group took their message to various schools of the area. Sonia holds the view that: “It is a teacher’s duty to spread awareness about the importance of plants to the students”. The group members talked to students and teachers about the importance of green spaces in cities.

Activities were also held in school gardens in which the group members demonstrated to the students and teachers how to plant and nurture different types of seeds and plants. Information about plants and their uses in day-to-day life was shared among the teachers and students. Questions by the participants were also answered by the group members.

In the words of Sonia’s group: “Our Social Action Project was a success and we think that we were able to achieve our goal – which was to make our little learners aware of the importance of growing and taking care of plants”.

Making a difference

After attending a four-day Active Citizens training workshop, Maria Zia was motivated to put into action a desire she had long held – to clean up parts of her city, Rawalpindi, and educate the community about the importance of controlling environmental pollution. ‘Ao Pindi Chamkain’ (Let’s Clean Up Pindi) is the award-winning social action project initiated by Maria.

Her team of twelve students meets regularly at the Commercial Market Park and divides into groups of 2 or 3. These groups spread out to different areas nearby, armed with garbage disposal bags and dustbins. They pick up litter and talk to residents along the way, in the hope of inspiring them with their spirit of community participation.

There has been a marked improvement in the environment of the neighbourhoods that Maria’s group regularly visits. Residents who were initially sceptical about the commitment of these youngsters have acknowledged their contributions and have pledged to carry forward their work. Work which, rewarding though it may be, is not without its difficulties. The most serious one is a lack of finances. Since the members of the group are all students, they are finding it increasingly difficult to cover the costs of transportation and materials.

Maria hopes that residents will now start pitching in to provide financial support and ensure the long-term sustainability of her project.