Ashrafuddin Pirzada
KHYBER: Polio officials held a sensitization session with elected representatives to build an alliance and successfully complete the anti-polio campaign in Landikotal on Saturday.
Representatives of local government, the tehsil chairman and key Influencers of Tehsil Landikotal attended the session held in the Landikotal tehsil compound.
Prominent political, tribal and religious influencers also attended the event.
The primary objective of the session was to garner support for polio vaccination, delinking demands-based refusals from polio vaccination and reach out to all missing children to vaccinate in the coming anti-polio drive.
Speakers said they should focus on the refusals cases particularly the permanently missed children to engage all influencers for successful polio vaccination and reach out to every under 5 years of age child.
Speakers including polio eradication communication Khyber Officer Khyber Said Afzal Shinwari highlighted the importance of polio vaccination and said that global and national updates had shown that the data of refusals, major issues and best practices decreased. He said the role of elected representatives could play a vital role in addressing citizens’ problems and ending their boycotts of polio vaccination.
He said the upcoming polio campaign would commence on March 3, 2024, and would be continued till the 9th of March. He said
more than 0.2 million children under the age of 5 years would be administered polio drops through the support of 923 polio teams in district Khyber.
Shinwari said all the health teams were properly trained for specialized community mobilization campaigns. He said they had arranged tribal jirgas, hujra meetings, mosque announcements, meetings with religious, political and tribal elders, and school sessions with students, parents, elders and key influencers were successfully in progress at each village level.
Tehsil Chairmen Shah Khalid Shinwari highlighted the vital role of elected representatives in advocating and supporting polio vaccination efforts. He said that elected representatives should allocate resources, pass legislation, and raise awareness to ensure that vaccination efforts are prioritized and effectively implemented in their respective communities. He said that the elected representatives could also facilitate and strengthen these partnerships to maximize the impact of vaccination efforts.
Jumat-e-Islamic local leader and VC Chairmen Abdur Rauf Shinwari said that protecting the children’s health was the collective responsibility of everyone. He urged that elected councillors and elders must stand united in support of polio vaccination efforts. He hoped that with the support of all stakeholders, soon this menace would be eradicated from Pakistan.
The event successfully garnered strong support from elected representatives of all NCs/VCs and prominent influencers regarding polio vaccination. They expressed their commitment to actively participate in the NID campaign, facilitate refusal conversion efforts, neutralize mass boycotts and engage in community outreach to encourage vaccination.
