Page 5 - Oct 12th

Frontline workers like Fareeda walked tirelessly in the intense summer heat through
busy streets, dense neighbourhoods, semi-urban areas, villages and towns across 75
districts. Their only goal: bringing the power of medical science to every family - in
this case, in the form of a safe and effective polio vaccine prequalified by WHO and

safely used across 195 countries, including all Muslim-majority countries.
Since the launch of Pakistan's Polio Eradication Initiative in 1994, Pakistan has
reduced polio cases by 99.8%, from an estimated 20 000 in the early 1990s to 31 in
2025 and 4 cases so far in 2026. Global polio eradication experts agree that ending
wild polio in Pakistan and worldwide is within reach, but only if all partners maintain
the response in the 2 remaining endemic countries: Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"I have vaccinated my own children because I would never want them to be affected
by polio. Just like that, I do not want any child in Pakistan, or anywhere in the world,
to be paralysed by polio. When I am vaccinating children, I am thinking of them as my
own," says Fareeda, who has been working as a polio worker for over 10 years.

For Mubashira, commitment to polio eradication runs in the family.

"I was very inspired to do this work because my father and sister used to do it too.
Polio is an incurable disease, and it puts our children's future at risk. I want to protect
their future and protect them from paralysis," she says.
Mubashira's 2-member team, deployed in the Ahsanabad neighbourhood, visits 450-
500 homes during each campaign to vaccinate every child under 5.

As a founding partner of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), WHO
provides technical and operational assistance to Pakistan and partners to run the largest
polio operation in the world. This collaboration includes science- and evidence-based
vaccination campaigns, support for the world's largest and most sensitive poliovirus
surveillance network, training and deployment of polio workers - 60% of them women
- outbreak response, and the monitoring and evaluation of vaccination drives.

October 24 is World Polio Day

Program for the weeks ahead

Date Oct 19 Oct 26

Venue Mooloolaba Bowls Club Immanuel Lutheran College

Finalists in The Telling Stories Writing
Subject Project Kemabolo
Competition

Greg Ison, Chairman of Eumundi Rotary
Speaker The Children of The Sunshine Coast
Initiatives Ltd

Chairperson Kevan DACEY Andrew BUTTERWORTH

Speaker Graham LUKINS
Host

Front Desk Alison YOUNG John OATES