Thirty-four Rotary volunteers from Yorkshire have just returned from a 10-day trip to India where they took part in a drive to eradicate polio through an immunisation programme. The party included Gillian Poole from Brighouse, president-elect of Mirfield Rotary club, and John Philip, of Fixby, district governor of 82 Rotary clubs in West and North Yorkshire, and his wife Chris.

For all three it was a rewarding, moving and eye-opening experience. They were in the state of Uttar Pradesh to join the fight against polio on National Immunisation Day and were able to help administer oral vaccines to thousands of children under five in the city of Lucknow and its outskirts.

Gillian, who is an early years improvement manager with Calderdale Council, said: "I wanted to go out to India because I wanted to help raise awareness about polio and help in the last push against this crippling disease. National Immunisation Day is very well-organised. There is a huge advertising campaign on TV and radio urging parents to get their children immunised and special booths are set up on street corners. It is a massive effort.

"A lot of the children hadn't seen Europeans before so we were a bit of novelty and I think that helped in getting them to come along and see what was happening. On one day we were working from the booths and the next day we went out knocking on doors to see if there were any homes with children who hadn't been vaccinated as well as trying to reach travelling families."

Gillian, who is 51 and has two daughters, Gemma aged 24 and Faye, 21, was working in a rural area just outside Lucknow where the last recorded case of polio was in 2006.

"It was a very primitive environment. There was poor sanitation, water came from a pump and there were water buffalo wandering round but the friendliness and warmth of the people was truly inspiring. The community was very supportive and everyone helped each other and shared what they had."

After taking part in the immunisation programme, Gillian also got the chance to visit an orphanage in Lucknow, run by Rotary, which looks after children aged from birth to 10.

"Some of them had been abandoned by their families, some of them were street children. It was quite a tearjerker to see what they'd had to cope with in their young lives."

She also visited a school where Rotary is helping to raise money for a science lab and a centre for adults with learning difficulties.

John and Chris Philip were based in the city of Lucknow where they were treated like minor celebrities. Chris said: "We had taken out lots of small gifts, just tokens really – things like pencils, masks, whistles, hairclips and so on, to give to the children when they had been immunised.

(Full story and more pictures in the Brighouse Echo 19/2/2009)

http://www.rotary.org