NID Day - February 7, 2010

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Today, each member of the two teams of Rotarians - ROTARY DREAM TEAM - INDIA 2010 and ROTARY POLIO-VISION TEAM were to meet midway between Sohna and Kesroli. This meant that our team, after a very long day's journey into night (great title for a book no?) and a climb equal to the last three hundred meters of Everest, had to be at breakfast by 5:30 a.m. and be on the bus, ready to depart, no later than 6:00 a.m. The goal was for the two buses to meet near the hospital in Mandikhera - a town in the Mewat District, where my teams had worked for the past three years. As we slowed down, just past the main entrance to the hospital, we coasted over to a parking spot, just as the other team's bus arrived from Sohna. Perfect timing!

From there, we drove about ten minutes to another area in the center of the town, where we were met by Dr. Singh of the World Health Organization, as well as other physicians in the area. The first item on the morning's agenda was for us to participate in NID activities, namely a drummer band would lead us through the streets, where we were to clap loudly and dance and sing and do whatever we could to encourage people to bring their children to be immunized. The drummers arrived - four of them, two dressed in turquoise silk costumes and two in hot pink silk costumes, plus a fifth man, who I believe must have been the manager of the group. "Let the procession begin," called out Dr. Singh, and the drummers began banging their sticks on each end of the drums they were carrying, and we began our walk through the town. I probably have experienced louder noise, but I cannot recall when. These guys were amazingly gifted in shattering ear drums for anyone who happened to be within about fifty feet of them. The object of this exercise was to follow Past Rotary International President Frank Devlyn's theme for the year I served as District Governor - CREATE AWARENESS ~ TAKE ACTION! Well, if we did not succeed in this, then we must have been somewhere else. Not only were we about fifty strong, all wearing out yellow team shirts, but all but three in out total were, or at least appeared to be, white Westerners - who for some in this village were the very first of our kind to be seen there. We were part of the attraction, in addition to the drummers.

Our teams snaked our way through the streets and alleys of the town, all the while clapping as loud as we could and dancing in the streets. The fifth man of the group, whom I mentioned previously, was carrying a moracca of noise maker, and I asked if I could use it. Somehow, I had ended up nearly in the middle of the drummers, and shook the noise maker until I felt my arm might fall off! At one point, Aruna Khousik from Toronto (a member of one of my previous teams) and I met in the street and we began dancing together to the great pleasure of the crowds which had gathered, lining the streets. I think the drummers were even entertained (you notice I did not say they were impressed!) and our dancing only served to encourage them to raise the decibel level and the pace of the drum beats. Even Dr. Singh, who had up until now been rather reserved in his manner, was astounded that we were dancing and enjoying ourselves and I feel he was also amazed that we were so successful in attracting the positive attention of the locals, who hopefully would respond to our invitation to bring their children to be immunized. We danced and clapped for nearly forty minutes straight and then returned to where the buses had been parked.

Upon our return, our team re-boarded our bus, along with the two turquoise drummers, and drove on to other villages. Half of our team was to cover the Punahana area, along with one drummer, while the rest of us would move on to another nearby town, Bisru. It was of particular significance that we should really do our best to "drum up business" in Bisru, because within the past week a new case of polio had been confirmed, while only two months before, another case had been diagnosed and confirmed. For some reason, these particular towns were not bringing their children to receive the polio vaccine, and I was concerned that might be because the towns people, principally the Muslim villagers were distrusting of the entire process. Several years ago, about the same time of year, I learned that Muslims, in particular, felt the immunization program was responsible for the sterilization of their male children, and therefore, refused to have their children immunized. It was principally through the intervention of Rotary International that this myth was overturned, and people began to bring their children to be immunized. Unfortunately, due to lack of education, so many people still do not realize they do not have to subject their children to the paralysis and possible death, caused by poliomyelitis.

When my half of our team arrived in Bisru, we still had one of the drummers and again hiked our way through the village, stopping at the various vaccine distribution booths, and dropped off members of the team who would be working there for the next few hours. Along our route, Dr. Singh asked if I would care to see one or both of the relatively recently diagnosed cases. He and I separated from the group for a few minutes and walked to the home where one child was thought to live. Her grandmother came to the door, carrying the little girl, and it was one of the saddest sights I had ever seen. The little girl could not have been more than one year of age. Her grandmother cradled her in her arms, while supporting her with one hand under her buttocks. The little girl's legs just flopped lifelessly, like two flaccid gelatinous stumps.

From this house, Dr. Singh and I walked back to the main street and on to another one of the polio vaccine distribution booths. This one would be particularly special for me, because it was here that a member of DREAM TEAMS 2008 and 2009 was dispensing the vaccine. Linda Nicole, who had been such an integral part of our previous teams, came to India on her own, not only to participate in another NID, but also to donate her time and her talents to those children in the Mewat who suffer from polio. Since Linda first joined me in 2008, she has returned to India twice - each time to participate in NIDs, but last year, she also worked on our team project, as well as striking out on her own to share her compassion and talent as a massage therapist with children who are victims of polio. In 2009, she stayed here for nearly two months and worked as a volunteer in the hospital near Mewat, living with two local physicians. Her mission was to teach care givers and/or parents of polio victims the proper way to massage the limbs of their children, to maximize the therapeutic benefits of massage for rehabilitation. As I waled down the narrow street, I saw Dr. Balla, Linda's host. He called to Linda who came from her booth and saw me and smiled. It was so wonderful to see her after nearly a year. Her same bright smile and caring manner continues to shine through. We chatted, I gave her one of our DREAM TEAM shirts for 2010, and then I had to move on to my own booth with Cheryl Draper. We promised to try our best to re-connect within the remaining time I would be in India, since she would also be staying for at least that time.

Cheryl and I walked on until we reached a turn in the alley and met the local folks who were distributing vaccine. At first, as is so often the case, the locals looked askance at us, not knowing why we were there and not really wanting to relinquish the control of the vaccination process to a couple of total strangers. By the time we reached the distribution site, most of the children in that neighborhood had already received their drops and had their pinkies painted purple/ However, with a bit of a fascination factor in play, some people walked by to gawk at us (don't believe many had ever seen white Westerners). As an ancillary benefit to this, several parents and older children brought their youngsters to be immunized. Since I had immunized literally hundreds of children over the years, I wanted to give drops to just one child and then to pass this honor to my partner Cheryl - a retired veterinarian from Ontario. She would give the drops, I would mark the pinky purple and we would move on to the next children. We walked a bit through the neighborhood, in hopes of attracting sufficient attention to ourselves, that more children would be brought to us for receiving the drops.

One young girl of about fourteen years walked by us a few times, carrying what I would guess was her baby. I motioned to her to bring the child to receive the vaccine, but each time she turned away shyly and continued to walk on. I shared this with Cheryl, hoping she might be more successful in persuading the girl to bring her baby to us for vaccination. At one point, I thought Cheryl was going to succeed, but just then, a young man, presumably her husband, uttered a few inaudible grunts and the girl not only walked away, but also entered a building nearby, never to return. A few minutes later, a different young man, who spoke English with an educated manner, came to us and began talking about the NID and the village. He told me that in the event we needed anything, he would arrange it. He also invited us to his home for tea and biscuits. We declined, saying we really needed to stay at the booth in order to fulfill our obligation to Rotary, WHO and the rest of our team. He left and returned in a few minutes with two cups of wonderfully fragrant chai ( kashmiri spices, I believe) and we paused for a minute or two to enjoy our refreshment.

A few minutes after we finished the tea, an older woman approached our "booth". She stood perfectly still, alongside some younger ladies and girls of the village. I noticed her and offered that she might wish to sit on my chair. She demurred but I persisted and motioned for her to come forward. She finally approached me and the young man whom I mentioned earlier told me the old woman wanted to give me a blessing. I removed my cap and leaned forward so she could easily reach up to touch the top of my head. She placed her hands on my head and then drew them down past my eyes to my cheeks and then off my jaws - an incredible feeling of well being coming over me. I knelt down to touch her feet and as I began to stand up, she took my hands in hers, then smiled and nodded to me. She never did sit down and when I inquired of the young man why she had done this, he said it was because we had come to her village and neighborhood and had administered polio vaccine drops, perhaps to her children's children, and she wanted to acknowledge our presence and our mission.

A short while later, I received a call from Arnold Quaranta who said his booth had run out of vaccine and would I bring some to him. I asked our young gentleman if he knew where we might find some extra vials of vaccine. He checked and we did not have any to spare, so we walked to another booth to find out if they could send some of their supply to the booth where Arnie was working. They agreed the young man would take it with him and ride on his motorcycle to the booth. We returned to our booth and finished up, just about the same time as a car arrived, that had been sent to collect us.

When we returned to the bus and met each sub-team, we heard varying stories of success and confusion. All in all, however, our team was very successful first in supporting the local effort; next by actually giving drops to children; and finally, by encouraging the locals to continue on in this effort in the coming months so that next year at this time, we could return to find NO NEW POLIO cases, one year later. All of us gathered on our bus, including one drummer, and moved on to Punahana to meet the rest of our team members. Two by two, they re-joined the group and we recapped the day.

If I were to offer an observation or two, and perhaps a couple of recommendations, to the WHO personnel, they would be as follows:
WHO should provide basis training to any and all who might be serving to distribute drops in the future
Training needs to be CONSISTENT
Volunteers must be shown how to be assertive, in order to encourage, cajole or bribe people to bring their children to be vaccinated. These folks need to become empowered to finish the job!
Volunteers need to learn how NOT to frighten children who are brought to be vaccinated. Sometimes the children simply scream and cry, while flailing their arms, avoiding the purple pinkies.


Now it was back on the bus, a two hour ride and then dinner at Hill Fort at Kesroli. We would eat outside, beneath the stars, enjoying the sonderful tastes and smells of the local cuisine.