karachi

Hope for polio eradication takes a bullet

Standard

Karachi

Salma Jaffar, 35, lies on a stretcher, barely able to talk to her relatives on the cell phone.A bullet had pierced her chest and another one her arm just as she was releasing polio vaccine from a dropper into a child’s mouth in Qayyumabad, a locality with mixed ethnicity.

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She saved her life and that of the child who was in her arms by jumping inside the house. But three other members of her team, Anita Zafar, Akbari Begum and Fahad Khalil, were unable to survive the barrage of bullets fired by four men who had come on two motorcycles. A passerby, Ali Asghar, also suffered injuries.

The brazen attack on Tuesday not only jeopardised anti-polio efforts in Karachi, but in the entire province. The vaccination campaign has been suspended for now. Polio workers have also refused to participate in the immunisation campaign across the province until they are provided with adequate security.

Unfortunately, Pakistan is one of the only three countries in the world where polio remains endemic, along with Afghanistan and Nigeria. One of the major reasons for this is the series of Taliban attacks on vaccinators.

The Taliban oppose anti-polio campaigns saying that they are some kind of a “sinister plot to sterilise Muslims”. The World Health Organisation had recently warned that Peshawar was the world’s “largest reservoir” of polio virus.

Seemin Jamali, the in-charge of the Jinnah Hospital’s emergency ward, said the three polio workers were already dead by the time they were brought to the hospital. “The passerby suffered minor injuries and has been discharged, while Salma is still undergoing treatment,” she added.

No security

The biggest question that is being raised following the Qayyumabad attack is about the lack of security for the vaccinators. Korangi Town Health Officer Dr Syed Hussain said the team started off their duties without any security protocol.

“Police were unavailable till 11am, and we thought the area was safe,” he added.

Qayyumabad has a mixed population including Mohajirs, Sindhis and Pakhtuns. “This wasn’t a troubled area like Gadap or Sohrab Goth where vaccinators are attacked. There has never been any problem in this locality during [the previous] anti-polio campaigns,” said Hussain.

Polio vaccinators usually face resistance in the Pakhtun-dominated areas of the city where the Taliban have a significant presence.

The Qayyumabad attack was the first incident of its kind reported in District East of the city.

SSP East Muhammad Shah said police had told the town health officer that the team should not be dispatched before a police van reached there at 11am.

“There has been an increase in reports about extremists gaining a foothold in the area,” he added.

“The standard operating procedure is that all polio teams should leave with security protocol.”

What next?

The attack has left polio workers, who were already worried about their security, more frightened and demoralised. Mazhar Khamesani, the in-charge of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation Sindh, said the anti-polio drive had been suspended in the province until further notice.

He demanded proper security steps for all polio workers in the province. “The morale of our workers has reached its lowest ebb.”

Khamesani said almost 80 percent of the workers were volunteers hired from nearby localities for Rs250 a day with a target of vaccinating 150 children.

Dr Ashfaq Ahmed, a health officer in North Nazimabad, said the attack would make it very hard to motivate vaccinators to continue participating in the campaign.

Muhammad Saeed, who supervises polio teams, said the vaccinators, most of whom were women, were being pressured by their families to stop working because of the dangers involved.

Fatima Ali, a polio worker, said she and her colleagues are labelled brave soldiers, but the fact was that they were just looking to earn some extra money.

“We cannot risk our lives only for a few rupees.”

Seven polio cases were reported in Karachi last year. The Taliban and fundamentalist religious groups propagate that the American CIA is behind the polio vaccination drives as part of a conspiracy against Muslims.

To counter them, aid organisations have distributed pamphlets continuing 24 fatwas in favour of the anti-polio campaign in localities where the vaccinators face resistance, but the attacks continue.

The Sindh chief minister announced Rs500,000 each in compensation for the polio vaccinators slain in Qayyumabad.

Abdus Sattar Edhi, the octogenarian social worker, announced compensation of Rs100,000 for the families of slain health workers.

picture courtesy The News

story originally published here

One year later, free education remains a distant dream

Standard

Karachi

In Sindh’s Jamshoro district, there are pockets with zero percent literacy. But at a school run by a not-for-profit organisation, a group of 20 students, mostly girls, are trying to change the status quo.

a group of girls at Jamshoro who are striving to change status quo

a group of girls at Jamshoro who are striving to change status quo

They know everything about Article 25a—the right to free and compulsory education for children aged from five to 16; the fact the constitution recognises education as a fundamental right now — a right that citizens are born with; and that if parents don’t send children to school they can get imprisoned for three months.

In their village, they have held theatrical performances to increase awareness about the law. They have visited parents. They have even talked to government teachers, one of whom is now tackling the problem of absenteeism at his high school by writing letters to parents whose children are not attending.

A boy died in their village while crossing the highway to reach his school on the other side. He was run over by a truck. The girls wrote a letter to the district’s education officer to tell him about this very important issue.

a letter the girls wrote to the education officials complaining about the school on the highway.

a letter the girls wrote to the education officials complaining about the school on the highway.

“Education is our right. If the authorities do not give us our right, we should pester them until they succumb,” says Shehla, a vocal ninth grader. And how do you pester the government? “We write letters; involve the media; and hold peaceful demonstrations,” she says.

This is a small community mobilisation campaign that the Indus Resource Centre, a not-for-profit organisation, is running at three of its schools in Jamshoro. While this may be a ray of hope, the larger picture is somewhat bleak.

A year after Sindh became the first province to guarantee education as a fundamental right to its citizens, not much has been done on ground. A visit to rural areas brings out a dismal picture of public schools.

Against promises by successive ministers of introducing technology in education, students can still be seen using slates and chalk. At a higher secondary school in Kotdiji, a village in Khairpur, there are only two teachers against the needed 22. Not surprisingly, students don’t bother to attend school.

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In Habibullah Goth, another downtrodden village, a new school building has been constructed in front of an empty school building. While the former enrols about 10 students, villagers don’t know the last time classes were held.

Many girls interviewed during the visit accepted that their parents did not allow them to go to high school as boys from other villages sat in the same classes.

Nutrition remains a problem and during recess many students run home for a quick snack. “Generally they come without breakfast. And sometimes after they leave school for lunch they don’t come back,” said a teacher present at one of such schools.

A pilot project by a milk company and a private school where students are given a cup of milk for everyday attendance has shown remarkable improvement in turnout, claim teachers.

No official notification has been dispatched to office-bearers at the provincial education department, informing them about the legislation for free and compulsory education. As a result, only 25 percent officials in rural Sindh know about the existence of such an act, states a study conducted by the Indus Resource Centre.

The study titled “Implementation of the Sindh Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act” also states that only two percent parents in rural Sindh know about the year-old law. Similarly, only two percent of school-going children in rural Sindh know about the law. Among the teachers a mere three percent know the law.

Thirty-two percent of children in Sindh are out of school, according to the Annual State of Education Report 2012.

While the Sindh government took the lead in making education free and compulsory, there is a need now to make schools a fun place to learn. This can only be achieved through addressing the hurdles communities face in accessing education.

It is not that there is no demand for education. Schools run by the social sector are often full to the brim while public sector schools are plagued with low attendance. It is time the Sindh government takes the lead in bringing children back to school.

originally published here