Today was the big day. Today, Rotarians and health workers across India inoculated nearly 172 million children–every child five and younger in the entire country–against polio.
Three primary activities were conducted today to accomplish the objective:
Booths were set up around the country and kids were encouraged to participate using little toy balls
Mobile units fanned out seeking out people who didn’t go to the booths
Units were set up in train and bus stations–even climbing aboard trains.
Michelle Kloempken, right, immunizes a baby.
Beginning tomorrow and for the rest of this week, teams will go house to house across India looking for children that didn’t get. Tomorrow, I’ll get to join one of those teams for a while.
The challenges associated with this massive effort are exacerbated by the poverty that so many Indian children experience. Without resources, about half of households in the country don’t have toilet facilities of any sort. Water sources are sometimes the same rivers into wh…