A trip to India in 2003 with past RI President Frank Devlyn provided me the single most rewarding day of my Rotary life. It was the absolutely awesome opportunity to participate in a
National Immunisation Day to vaccinate children against polio in the suburbs of Delhi.
Sunday, 9th February, began early. On the road well before eight, we passed literally thousands of blue and gold banners hung on lampposts and over the roadways as we skirted around Delhi from south to east to the northern U.P. suburbs. In one particularly crowded business district, we alighted and walked up a narrow street simply choked with pedestrians, coming upon a group of Rotary volunteers from Illinois and Michigan organised by Rotary PDG Dave Groner. They were manning a polio vaccine dispensing station under the direction of local Indian Rotary leaders.
After only a few moments of observation, I asked if I could help. Their affirmative led me to jump right in, helping them keep a horde of children in order as they first raised their faces -- mouths open and tongues outstretched -- to receive the precious two drops of polio vaccine. Then I watched another Rotary volunteer painting each child's baby fingernail with indelible marker to denote their status as "immunised!" Finally, I noted the number of children having been marked being tallied by another volunteer monitor who had a sheef of tally sheets so that every dose given a child was recorded.
We moved on to other locations. One vaccination station was on the open road at a factory entrance -- I saw one Rotarian walk out into the highway, flag down a speeding bus, get on and dose all the children on board as the driver and passengers applauded; another station was on the side of the road at the edge of an open market where children were being immunised within a few feet of passing cars and trucks -- with people leaning out of their vehicles, honking their horns and waving enthusiastically as they passed the immunisation station.
One early visit was to a nearby small but densely populated suburb where the children of all ages excitedly followed us through the narrow streets. I asked my host how to say "vaccine" in Hindi, along with "yes" and "no." I then shouted, "Vaccine, yes! -- Polio NO!" in Hindi, and the children immediately began echoing the chant repeatedly, announcing our coming to the entire village as we snaked our way up and down the village streets. The festive nature and laughing children made it all but impossible for anyone to say "no" to the vaccine being given.
In another outlying U.P. suburb, I saw dozens of medical students from the Muslim medical school in Delhi operating several immunisation stations. They told me they were making plans to have female medical students return later in the week to talk to reluctant Muslim mothers whose children were missed on the Sunday immunisation day.
In still another suburb I walked arm-in-arm with a Muslim Imam as he called parents to bring their children out to be immunized. We discussed all the "forbidden" subjects -- religion, politics, discrimination and socio-economic inequity -- in a forthright and animated manner as I carefully carried the vaccine in small vials held in styrofoam containers, dispensing those precious two drops on the outstretched tongues of scores of children.
We drove to an outlying village, and my hosts and I were invited by the village elders to join their celebratory banquet as they had immunised EVERY child in their district in just over five hours. I was embarrassed to sit and eat with them as we arrived after the last child had been dosed as the celebration was really theirs and the real heroes were Rotarians from England and America who had been there organising and working to set up this success over the entire previous week....
More stops at vaccination stations; meeting more volunteers dispensing vaccine; seeing more people, both happy and apprehensive, wondering if this was finally the knock-out punch that would forever destroy this terrible crippling disease.
At our last stop a Rotarian businessman, exhausted by the long day immunising in front of his store, invited us to sit for tea and biscuits -- and I was ever so grateful for his having a toilet upstairs to use for the first time in hours!
One experience stands out above all others:
Walking up a narrow lane, we went from door to door, dispensing vaccine to all of the children. We came to a house that opened up to reveal several women and a couple of dozen small children. I enthusiastically immunised each child as they were guided before me, smiling at the mothers and muttering "dhanyavad" and "shukriya" -- knowing not which language they understood my thanks to them. As I was nearly finished providing vaccine drops, I suddenly ran out -- my last vaccine vial was empty! One mother looked at me, horrified as she realized I had no more vaccine to give her son. I gestured and pointed back down the lane that I would go back to the dispensing station and return with a fresh supply.
But she only partially understood, and quickly handed her rather pudgy year-old son to her spindly seven-year-old daughter and obviously told the girl to go with me. Another mother standing nearby immediately handed an even younger son to her even-younger daughter with the same instruction. The girls then obediently padded along behind me, barefoot, on the dirty, dusty, unpaved lane some three blocks back to the dispensing station, the small girls struggling with their loads of baby brothers.
I grabbed another vial from the Rotarian van and the girl helped me hold her brother’s mouth open to dispense the precious two drops. Then she helped the smaller girl to urge her baby brother to open his mouth for the same treatment.
As she turned to leave, the older girl gave me a look that said without words, so very clearly and poignantly, that she wished we were immunising girls as well as boys...... I instinctively knew that her mother’s instruction had been to “get the brother immunised” ....and that in a culture where boys often are more highly regarded than mere girls, this norm would not necessarily include protective immunisation for girl children.
Sensing this, I immediately extended my hand holding the vaccine vial toward her, nodding my head and opening my own mouth, extending my tongue, my eyes inviting her to take the drops as well. In an instant she wheeled around, threw back her head, opened her mouth and thrust her tongue out as far as she could.
After I immunised both girls, they happily trotted off with their heavy loads of baby brothers.
I smiled through my own tears -- KNOWING I WOULD TREASURE THIS MOMENT THE REST OF MY LIFE.
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To anyone who asks why we believe in the power of Rotary involvement, this story says it all.
No way I could have done that by myself.
I was just one small part of an army of volunteers organized primarily by Indian Rotarians -- over a hundred thousand Rotarians and their families and friends, I later learned. In the days and weeks leading up to the Immunisation Day itself, they had hung a zillion blue and gold cloth banners and even more cardboard posters announcing the Sunday vaccination day throughout the country, on light standards and telephone poles, on buildings, overheads and wherever. The sponsored and created radio and TV announcements used throughout the country -- and used bullhorns on the streets of communities to announce the coming of Rotary on 9th February to every part of this nation of over a billion people!
Rotarians had worked nearly a year to organise and fund the logistics of purchasing vaccine, organising transportation, marshalling medical volunteers, setting up facilities, promoting the upcoming NID with posters, banners, flyers, press releases and media exposure -- and hosting thousands of volunteers from Europe, America and elsewhere who just came to help out.
At the local club level, Rotarians organized and manned vaccination stands, stopped busses on the highways, went through trains and airports, and walked from door to door throughout the country.... and who, in a single day, provided polio vaccine to 165,000,000 children..... that’s right -- 165 MILLION! And that was only the latest of a dozen or more NIDs in India and of hundreds more in 130+ other countries around the globe over the past fifteen years.
No more was Polio Plus just a fund raising effort to me; no more was it written on mere paper, or in distant photographs printed in the Rotarian magazine. No -- this was the experience of a lifetime..... unlike any I’ve ever had the pleasure and honor of being a part of..... of my actually squeezing those tiny bottles over and over again hundreds and hundreds of times. I tried to remember names, but was overwhelmed by the sheer number of people I met; I thought to keep count, and it just wasn't possible; I thought to take notes, but was too busy being totally immersed and involved in the actual immunisation process.
All I have is the searing memory of that day, an overwhelming kaleidoscope of sights, sounds and emotions.
And the most vivid mind-picture that remains with me is of children with their heads thrown back, their tongues extended, their eyes bright with anticipation, then laughing as they held their finger to be painted with the permanent marker that identified them as being safe --- safe from the dreaded polio virus.
I can only wish that everyone -- Rotarian or not -- could experience and feel the warmth and pride of being an integral part of such a rewarding event and to feel as I did that day. It was, simply enough, AWESOME -- as I received far more than I gave to those hundreds of little children!
If you can LOOK BEYOND YOURSELF to LEAD THE WAY to LEND A HAND, you too can SOW THE SEEDS OF LOVE and MAKE DREAMS REAL. You can SHARE ROTARY involvement amd recognize that
REAL HAPPINESS IS HELPING OTHERS.
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I would be remiss if I did not offer my eternal gratitude to DG Bobby Jain and the entire leadership of District 3010 for making my visit so very memorable. My hosts, PDG Manjit Sawhney and his lovely wife Rita are friends for life, and along with PDG Ranjan Dhingra, both of whom spent the entire NID providing me with a truly illuminating experience.
This latest trip to India provided me the opportunity to expand my Gift of Sight and Avoidable Blindness efforts, which was the key purpose of the trip by introducing Past RI President Frank Devlyn to many eye care projects that a number of us have worked with in several Indian states. In addition, PRIP Frank was able to meet the many deeply committed eye care medical and technical professionals working to serve those in need in Indian eye care projects. Moreover, we were able to participate in a special Avoidable Blindness Conference (ABC) seminar put together by PDG Rekha Shetty (D. 3230) and a whole bevy of Avoidable Blindness leaders led by PDG Prithvi Raval (D. 3190) in Hyderabad. Two exhausting weeks later, after visits to Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai, Madurai, Mumbai, Navsari and Vapi, we parted knowing how deeply committed our many Rotary friends are to the mission of eliminating all forms of preventable and reversible blindness throughout India.
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