1. A successful polio advocacy visit by Mr
A successful polio advocacy visit by Mr. Farooque Sheikh 24 – 25 Nov 2007, Lucknow, U.P.
The event “Farooque Sheikh Meets Community Leaders” was jointly organized by UNICEF and the Islamic Centre of India at Eidgah Lucknow on 24 November 2007 with the support of the health department, Rotary, NPSP, Jamia Millia Islamia, Aligarh Muslim University and Jamia Hamdard.
About 100 key Muslim community and religious leaders from 30 priority districts attended the event and most of them were from western UP.
The participants were encouraged to share the challenges which they face in the field. This and the presentations by Jamia Hamdard, JMI and AMU were helpful in equipping them with answers to various important FAQs.

2. Media Coverage Follow-up
We expect to see encouraging results out of this event in the vaccination coverage during the course of the SIA round which began on 25 Nov.
Farooque Sheikh’s exclusive message has been recorded by JMI which will be broadcast on ETV Urdu during the next polio SIA. His message will be mixed with the appeals by different community leaders which will be broadcast on local TV channels in different priority districts with the help of district administration.
Letter of appreciation will be sent to all the participants who turned up in full strength for this event to show their commitment despite the incident of a bomb explosion in Lucknow which happened on 23 November just a day before the event.
All the newspapers including English, Urdu and Hindi published stories on the event.

3. Never to miss any opportunity to vaccinate children against poliomyelitis…
Polio advocacy at Ramganga (Choubari) fair in Bareilly, western UP, 24 – 25 November 2007.

4. Why is polio advocacy at Ramganga fair important?
Bareilly has total 27 polio cases so far this year, 12 of them are from the rural Hindu communities.
 300,000 people attended the event, 90% of them were Hindu belonging to different rural areas of Bareilly and its contiguous districts.
12 transit vaccination teams for two days were deployed and 5,758 children were given OPV.
Treta Nand Baba, a highly respected Hindu leader, administered OPV to children during the fair.

5. Polio advocacy at the fair was reported in media.
This is another step in the direction of pursuing the strategy of “Never to miss any opportunity to give OPV to children.”

6. Advocacy at Kakoda fair at Qadar Chauk block, Badaun, 22 – 26 November 2007.
About 600,000 people coming from different areas of western UP attended the fair
About 20,000 children are expected to have received OPV from 25 special vaccination teams which were deployed by the health department at the fair.

7. Dr. R P Singh, district immunization officer, administering OPV to children at one of the polio advocacy stalls set up by UNICEF SMNet with the support of health & NPSP at the fair site.

8. Annual Urs of Moti Mia at Lalpur Village of Kundarki Block, Moradabad
on Nov 2007.
Furquan, DUC – UNICEF, on mike addressing the gathering on polio and ensuring their support for the 25 Nov SIA round. Other community leaders and the artistes from the podium also gave polio appeals.

9. Urs at Dada Mangal Shah Baba at Pakbara Block, Moradabad, first week of Nov 2007.
The Dargah (a sufi shrine) is highly revered by the local communities. UNICEF and partners organized polio awareness camps at the shrine. Sajjadanasheen of the shrine, Mr. Zulfiquar Hussain and Shehar Imam Pakbara appealed to the gathering for full cooperation for polio vaccination campaigns. Local newspapers published positive stories on the intervention.
Shehar Imam Pakbara Maulana Shamme Alam and Sajjadanasheen of Urs
Appealed to the gathering for their full cooperation in the noble work

10. HEADLINE: “Polio eradication messages during the Urs by UNICEF”, Halchal, a Hindi daily.

11. Polio advocacy at Urs Dargah-e-Barkatia Mahrehra Shareif, Mahrera, Etah on 16 – 18 Nov 2007.
~ 20,000 people attended the event. Key spiritual leaders like Nayeb Sajjada appealed passionately for polio vaccination, personal hygiene and education. The Urs organizers sponsored the local IEC on polio which was displayed and distributed at event.

12. Polio advocacy at Rampur urban exhibit
Polio advocacy at Rampur urban exhibit. A month long event in a priority district in Nov. was a great opportunity to mobilize thousands of parents who visited the exhibit. Synchronizing the 25 Nov. SIA polio round 4 vaccination teams were deployed at the site and ~ 700 children were vaccinated. The initiative has been appreciated by all partners including district administration, health, NPSP and the community leaders.

13. Orientation workshop on polio eradication programme at Madarsa Nurul-Islam, a local Islamic school, in Meerut urban on 20 Nov Shafeeque Ahamad, DUC – UNICEF, explaining the form of WPV and how it attacks human body.
50 students and teachers (15 from Madarsa Gulzare-Husainia Ajrada and 35 from madarsa Noorul-Islam Tehsil) attended the orientation.
The participants were informed about the importance of child health from the Islamic prospective by Maulana Mohd. Ahamad.
A standard presentation prepared by Jamia Hamdard on wild poliovirus, its infection and prevention was used by DUC Shafeeque Ahamad at the event. Polio update was given by Dr Hamid Sayeed (SSMO - NPSP). How to mobilize and convince non-compliant houses was done by Naushad Ali Ansari, SMC – UNICEF.
IEC: JMI green booklet, Joint appeal by eminent leaders and verification on OPV safety by Aligarh Muslim University were used.
The teachers and students of both the institutions promised to actively support the house-to-house vaccination activity during the polio SIA round which began on 25 Nov

14. FOLLOW – UP to Orientation: oriented madarasa teachers & students counseling underserved parents in Meerut urban during the house-to-house vaccination of the Nov polio SIA round.

15. Imams & madarsa teachers’ sensitization in Aligarh held on 22 Nov.
~ 170 madarasa teachers & students from all HRAs of Aligarh urban attended the event.
Shehar Mufti, Khalid Rasheed, Appealed to all Imams to provide all support to PEI.
The DM, Mr. Bhuvnesh Kumar, & the CMO, Dr R C Chadda addressed the participants.
The event was covered by media, good support of madarasa teachers & students was seen in Aligarh urban during the house-to-house polio vaccination which started on 26 Nov.
The event was organized by UNICEF’s SMNet & supported by Health, NPSP, AMU & Rotary.

16. Media Coverage: Dainik Jagaran & Amar Ujala, leading Hindi dailies, published positive stories on the Aligarh event.