To vaccinate a child against polio: tilt head back, (force) open mouth, 2 drops of vaccine down the hatch.
After vaccinating said child, make sure to mark their left hand pinky finger, so that other health care workers know this child has already been vaccinated.
Polio drops, black fingernails and crying children, oh my!
A funny thing happened on the way to Manjama clinic last Friday. I had gotten on the back of a motorbike to make the 3-mile-or-so trip to the clinic to drop off some photographs I’d had printed in the US sent over to SL, and about a half mile from the clinic we (almost literally) ran into Kadie, the Manjama MCH Aide, and Edward, one of her primary assistants. They were adorned with lovely “Mama en Pikin Welbodi Week” …coveralls?… (basically a MOH-affiliated village health worker’s uniform – it’s a piece of fabric that goes over their head and ties on either side), and were carrying a small cooler, apparently filled with polio vaccines. I was able to accompany them to 2 villages on Friday, and another 5 on Sunday, to observe the polio vaccination process. There have been recent (and some not-so-recent), isolated cases of measles and polio, so the Ministry of Health and Sanitation has been a bit busy coordinating vaccination efforts.
The polio vaccines need to be refrigerated. This creates a problem, as you can well imagine. However, a small cooler with 3 ice packs seems to work well for a day’s work – Edward or Kadie usually walk into Bo that morning, or the evening before, to pick up the vaccines and other supplies (mainly a permanent marker for recording, physically on the children, the successful completion of the vaccine). The vaccine itself is just 2 drops of liquid, into the mouths of children under the age of 10. Kadie said they are good for up to a year, however, they vaccinated multiple times in the past 12 months because of the outbreaks.
It was obvious from traveling with Kadie and Edward that they are well known to the communities they work in. Along the way certain villagers gave them food and supplies as a thank-you for coming to vaccinate the children. I was told that levels of appreciation, and understanding of what the Community Health Workers are doing, varies from village to village, although most are cooperative.
There were no written records of who/when/where people were vaccinated, just coloring in of the left pinky fingernail (alleged to stay for a few weeks) to ‘record’ that the vaccination had been done. My inner OCD, ‘list-maker’ was aghast at the seeming chaos that would ensure at every village center we visited. Kadie, however, remained in control and very confident at every point along the way. There were lots of crying children, apparently has a consequence of past campaigns in which injections were necessary. Although, if someone came up to me and forced my mouth open so that some mystery liquid could be dropped down my throat, I might be suspicious and fight back too…
My favorite parts of the 2 days was when we’d go off the ‘beaten track’ – upon hearing children, or seeing women with babies on their back doing chores/agriculture work, Kadie and Edward would forge their own path and find a child that needed to be vaccinated and couldn’t be counted on to show up at the village centers. At one point we had to walk through brush higher than I am tall, and came to a clearing in which some villagers were producing palm oil. Within 2 minutes all children under 10 at the site were vaccinated, and the smiles on Kadie and Edward’s faces reflected satisfaction.
Here’s to the successful decrease of polio incidence. Lots of photos below.
Here are some villagers helping to set up for the polio vaccines in the 2nd village we went to.
Welcome to the chaos. At the second village we went to, about 50-60 people congregated in a small, roofed shelter, and Kadie tried her best to maintain crowd control.
This child - none too happy to have the polio vaccine forced into his mouth.
After giving the children their polio vaccines, Kadie and/or Edward had to mark the little finger of each child's left hand so that other health workers would know they'd been vaccinated...wonder how long the marker actually lasts?
Marker. On fingernail. Eliciting SCREAMS.
We were walking between villages, and happened to pass a woman with a baby on her back. Kadie and Edward asked if her child had been vaccinated against polio. Her response - yes. They said, "when? Did you come to the clinic this morning?" Her response - yes. Then they said "You are lying. We were the workers there this morning. Please let us vaccinate your child." And so they did.
Here's Kadie, vaccinating the infant of the wood-carrier
And here's Edward, helping her put her bundle of wood back on her head. Happy, newly-vaccinated baby on her back.
And here's a grandmother with her grandchild, walking between villages, stopped to vaccinate the little one en route.
Village outreach at its best - can you imagine if this was the rainy season?
Oh, the wonder of basic technology. A styrofoam cooler with 3 ice packs and you've got yourself a vaccine storage unit!
In one village mothers actually formed an almost-line to get their children vaccinated. I almost fell off the chair they'd given me to sit in.
This poor little girl did not like (a) the vaccine, (b) getting her finger marked and even more so (c) me. I made more than my fair share of children cry on Friday and Sunday...
This young girl came with her sibling to observe the vaccine session
Palm Sunday activities
Happy Palm Sunday!
Along our way back to the main road, we met with one of the village TBAs - she offered Edward and Kadie rice for their hard work, and was a lot of fun to talk to. Very happy, bright, youthful woman. Apparently she's one of the most respected TBAs in the area.
This is the bundle of goods that the TBA was carrying. Yes, that's a (live) chicken's head sticking out of it.
She got a kick out of me taking her photo.
This little girl was very sweet. While all the boys in the village swarmed me and posed in positions that seemed like they were trying to impersonate pre-pubescent rappers, she kindly, quietly, asked me to snap her. Either she's actually really sweet, or just smarter than the boys....
Vaccinating the older children consisted of far fewer cries. Much appreciated.
This little one wasn't afraid of me. Or my camera. In fact, I had fingerprints all over my lens when all was said and done.
Very cute, shy child.
These two older, slightly-more-precocious children thoroughly enjoyed the bananas Kadie and Edward shared amongst the group --- we'd been given bananas at another village, along with bags of rice and a pineapple, and had run out of bag space to carry them all. My offer to carry them on my head, like a local, elicited a good response, but they didn't take me up on it. Instead, we shared the bananas with the kids (probably a much better use anyways).
I don't know if you can read it - and i really didn't feel like zooming in would be appropriate - but this kid's underwear says "OBAMA" on the band! This, apparently, is the new fashion statement in rural SL. He wasn't the only obama-underwear-sporting-kid I saw on Sunday!
