Skip to main content

Home | Information & Polio Plus | From UK to UP Report in Times of India

 

From UK to UP: Volunteers add renewed excitement to state's polio drive

 

MAULSHREEE SETH

Posted online: Monday , April 28, 2008 at 11:00:34
Updated: Monday , April 28, 2008 at 11:00:34



Lucknow, April 27 Of late, Uttar Pradesh might have lost its sheen to attract foreign tourists but surprisingly there is a group of volunteers from different parts of United Kingdom, who are waiting to come to Uttar Pradesh and Bihar for the cause of polio eradication. An urge to contribute towards Polio eradication in India has brought 16 such volunteers from England to Uttar Pradesh. Interestingly, these volunteers have paid anything between $ 2,000 to $ 2,500 to come here and work for the cause.

Half of these volunteers, comprising doctor, economist, surgeon, nurse, hotelier, students from all age groups ranging from 21 years to 75 years, are visiting India for the first time. But all aim to contribute someway or the other towards polio free world and consider UP to be the best place to start with.

"There are over 100 people from various parts of the UK, who are willing to come here and work at the grass root level for polio eradication. However, by the time this visit was finalised, papers of only 16 people were formalised thus the visit of the remaining would be planned at the end of the year," said Alan Hollands, the team leader and an education consultant by profession.

"Next time our destination would be polio-affected areas of Bihar," hollands added. On the first day of their visit that also happened to be the first day of the pulse polio drive, these volunteers visited various booths and administered polio drops to the children in the state capital.

"Since polio drive is taking place every month, it sometimes becomes monotonous for the health workers as well as the officials. Thus, we wish to work with them and show that apart from giving funds, we also care for them," Hollands added.

In the team of 16 volunteers, the eldest and the youngest ones are most excited about working on field. 75-year-old, June Pallett, a former nurse and the oldest member of the team has her own reason to associate with the drive.

"Around 50 years back, I have nursed some of the first few polio cases in England. At that time, polio was a killer disease. I still remember that how painful was it for a 17-year-old girl, who later succumbed to the disease. The purpose of my visit to India is to ensure that no child suffers from this disease again," said Pallett.

On the other hand, the youngest lot of three students, Chris Wright, Laurence Kemball Cook and Justine Sharples say that they will not only participate in the drive this time but will also convince their colleagues to do the same. "We have heard about polio and how it affects children. We will extended all our help that we can do to encourage the drive here," said 22-year-old Laurence, who is pursuing a course in industrial design.

Even the health department in Uttar Pradesh is hopeful that the visit of volunteers like these can bring some renewed momentum to the polio campaign that has become monotonous.

"The greater is the number of the people coming forward for this cause, the better it is for us. We are encouraging them to go along with the present volunteers in house-to-house visits as well," said Neeta Chaudhary, Principal Secretary, Medical and Health.

"While virus P1 has already been controlled in the state and with the efforts like these, we hope to tackle P3 type of polio virus as well," Chaudhary added.