SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 1st – NID DAY

It was up early and on the go for our team today. National Immunization Day (NID) was one of the two principal reasons our team is here in India. As a bit of background for those reading this who are unfamiliar with Rotary International, let me provide a few brief facts:

Rotary International was founded by Paul Harris, a young lawyer from Vermont, with three friends in Chicago on February 23, 1905.
The first service project completed by a Rotary Club also took place in Chicago, and was the construction of a public toilet facility.
The Rotary Foundation was begun as the funding arm of Rotary about forty years after the founding of Rotary.
Nearly twenty-five years ago, Rotary joined forces with the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control, the United Nations and adopted the eradication of polio throughout the world as its first and only corporate project
National Immunization Days (NIDs) evolved from the idea that it might be simpler for Rotarians and other volunteers, along with folks in the medical field as well as government employees, to take one day and immunize children under the age of five in an entire nation and to do this in one day! Successes have ranged from immunizing thirty or forty million children all the way to nearly two hundred million children, and all in a single day!
Polio remains endemic in only four countries – Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria and India.
The success rate for NIDs in India is astounding, and now there are many SNIDs (sub-NIDs) conducted in parts of Uttar Pardesh and Bihar states, where there are still some cases of polio diagnosed each year.
Rotarians from all over the world descend upon countries where NIDs are scheduled, and work alongside local Rotarians, as well as other volunteers, to help immunize kids.

This year, much like last year, our ROTARY DREAM TEAM – INDIA 2009 was requested by Dr. Sachin, the Medical Officer for polio eradication verification of the World Health Organization to work in the vicinity of Ghasera and Nuh, located about sixty or seventy kilometers away from where we were staying in Sohna. We ate an early breakfast and were on our way with our driver, Suresh, and his porter, Ragu. One reason we had been asked to arrive early was to be able to participate in the kick-off or opening ceremonies of the efforts in that region. They were taking place on the grounds of a fairly large hospital. We learned this hospital was the gift of a sheik from Saudi Arabia.

We bumped and jostled our way along the roads to Ghasera, which is located in Mewat (pronounced MAY-VAAT). We arrived to find the parking lot of the hospital total empty, and boys setting up chairs around the perimeter of the area set aside for the ceremonies. We descended from the bus and I was pleased to see two familiar faces, that of Dr. Sachin along with the chief physician of the hospital. They were pleased to see that I had returned with another team to assist in the NID that day. After a toilet break (and you can only imagine with the bouncing of the bus along the roads, as well as the potential for Delhi Belly that lingered for several members of the team, a toilet break was entirely necessary) we toured a small portion of the hospital and then boarded the bus to be taken to a tiny village where we would dispense drops – the life-saving drops of the polio vaccine, to children of the village. You see, since the guest of honor for the opening ceremonies had not yet arrived, it would be pointless to proceed without him. This was one of the many “adjustments” we seemed to be constantly making since our arrival in India a week prior. India Time is something all of its own, and if you have never experienced it you can never know or understand.

We arrived at the village and walked to one of the dispensing sites and a few of us remained at that post, while others walked the village alleys, serving once more as the pied-pipers – the curiosities of a village which had most likely never seen white westerners before. Although this might be a bit of a nuisance to us, the good thing was that children followed us to the distribution site and once there, were encouraged to get their drops. Even though we may have felt a bit extraneous at times during the day, our mere presence had an important effect upon the success of the eradication efforts – we attracted attention to polio eradication and with the arrival of ten total strangers, who were differently dressed and of a different skin color, there MUST be something important happening that day. We had been given a specific amount of time to work in the village before returning to the hospital. However, as is the custom in India, our visit was rewarded by the local people serving us tea and sweets. I have so often said that in India, every event has a ceremony.

When we returned to the hospital grounds, there were still only a few people there, but shortly thereafter, a school bus arrived with children from neighboring towns, as well as an ambulance that was packed with kids – the only visual I can provide is the Volkswagen ad from years ago when more than a dozen clowns exited the VW Bug. More and more children arrived, being led to the center of the area set for the ceremony, and then finally, the star of the day – world-renowned cricketer from India, Ashish Nehra. After being welcomed by one dignitary after another, with the traditional bouquet of flowers, we were then introduced to him. I explained to Ashish who we were, why we were here and a little bit about Rotary International. He had actually heard of the good works of Rotarians, particularly in India, and was pleased to accept a team shirt from me, and immediately put it on and wore it for the remainder of the ceremony. We had a team picture taken with Ashish, and then he, Chris Parkinson and I were invited to join the two doctors on the stage for the ceremony.

Ashish spoke first to all of those gathered and drove home the importance of having ALL children immunized against polio. He was also most gracious and spoke a few minutes about Rotary and the Rotarians of our team who had come from the USA and Canada, just to help out in this effort. Both the children and the adults gathered cheered. Chris Parkinson was the next to speak, indicating this was his first trip to India and how pleased he was to actually participate in an NID. I then spoke, sharing a few thoughts and hopes for the success of the day’s events. The three of us were then invited to come down from the stage and to give drops to the children who had been gathered and sat in a very orderly manner in lines of about fifty children. Several other members of the team were also able to give drops at that time. Children were given cardboard masks, provided with the Rotary emblem, as well as whistles, also carrying Rotary’s name. Following this, our team was driven to two villages a bit further out from the immediate area of the hospital. We were divided into two groups, and Sanjiv, the ever-present videographer traveled between locations in order to get more footage for the DVD he will later produce for each of us.

Those of us in my group, traveled with a physician who currently works at the hospital at Mewat. He is a man in his fifties or sixties, and has a full head of hair, which would naturally be white or at least gray, but in fact was more or less a carrot-orange, from the Henna dye he had used. It was really quite bright! When we left the schoolyard where the other members of the team would be working, we proceeded up the street to the main street in the town. On the corner, several shopkeepers were selling blocks of what appeared to be beeswax. The blocks were about one foot square and about four to five inches thick. I asked the doctor what it was they were selling and he told me sugar. The blocks were absolutely covered with flies, and I do not mean a few buzzing around. As far as the untrained eye might see, they could have been blocks of sugar with raisins in them – there were that many flies. Before we could say, “No thank you”, he had the bus driver stop and he got off the bus and purchased a chunk from the inside and middle of one of the blocks. He returned in a flash, carrying a chunk of the stuff, wrapped in a piece of newspaper. Well, when in India… So he broke off pieces of the sugar and some of us sampled it, while the others palmed the substance, waiting for an opportune moment to drop it into a receptacle or along the street. Actually, it was extremely sweet, but had the aftertaste of molasses. The doctor explained the process of squeezing the juice for sugar cane into a kettle and then boiling it and re-boiling it until a very thick syrupy substance was created and then that was formed into blocks – hopefully with no “raisins” added into the mix! We proceeded to the next town, dropped off Chris, Nancy and Crissie for their assignment and that left two of us to go to the next location.

Linda Nicol, from the Nipigon, Ontario Rotary Club, and I worked together down a side street and then another alley. We rode in a tiny van with the head of that village’s polio program, and she kindly introduced us to the volunteer women who had been sitting at that distribution point for a few hours. I think they were happy to turn over the vials of drops to us. One by one, children arrived for their life-saving vaccine, and after getting a pin from us and their marked baby finger, the kids ran in different directions, only to bring back other children to see the funny looking white people (that would be Linda and me) who were giving special pins if you got your drops. When we finished giving drops of vaccine to the children at that sector, we accompanied the head of the program in the tiny van and returned to the site where the others were working. When we arrived, each of our teams had immunized quite a number of children, but all of a sudden, we could hear quite a commotion approaching from up the street. Chris, Nancy and Crissie were working at this location and generally, when there is a commotion, it is all about Crissie – she is a very beautiful young woman with straight blonde hair and this seems to draw a tremendous amount of attention. However, as the noise increased in decibel level, we turned to see four young men hauling a wooden cart (about 6’ x 6’) down the street, with five babies bouncing along over each bump. Three of the babies were stark naked and I am sure none of them had any idea as to what was in store for them if they agreed to take a ride in the cart – they were coming to get their polio drops! One little boy was so unhappy when Crissie reached forward to give him the vaccine and it seemed as if we all had to work at calming him so he would get the drops.

Once finished there, we walked up to the corner to meet our bus. We passed by a man who was feeding thick sheets of material through what looked to me like an old-fashioned mangle. The doctor explained the man was re-fluffing cotton to be used to make new quilts or comforters. There was a tremendous amount of fluff dust created by this process and the doctor advised that we did not want to breathe in the loose fibers. Enough said, and we proceeded to our bus that would return us to the first town to meet our teammates.

When we arrived at the schoolyard, we could see none of our fellow team members. Evidently, they had gone on a walking tour of the town, having concluded their responsibilities at the distribution site. We waited for about ten minutes and then I called Sanjiv to find out their ETA. He told me they would all be back to board the bus in five minutes. Once they arrived, they joined us on the bus for a ride back to the hospital and lunch at the home of Dr. Randhawa – the chief surgeon and Chief Operating Officer of the hospital. Since this was where Linda would be coming and staying for the next two weeks, we thought it a good idea to get some sense of where she would be living. You see, Linda Nicol is a massage therapist by profession, and she had volunteered to work at a facility to provide massage therapy to children who are victims of polio paralysis. She is remaining in India for about six weeks, meeting up with the new team at the end of February, but with about two weeks of time where she will live at the hospital, staying with a family on the campus, and then working on a minimum of six patients each day, alternating two groups of six, in hopes of not only relieving some of their discomfort through massage by creating a new blood flow to the atrophied muscles, but also teaching the mothers how to continue the process once she has left India.

Lunch was typical of Indian light food, with salad, dal and rotis. Dessert looked like tiny crabapples – but in truth were made of marzipan. Following lunch, the rest of the team boarded the bus to return to Sohna, where they would be able to rest for an hour or so, and then meet Linda and me back at the farm for dinner. We were on a different mission.