Empowering Women on the Frontlines

"With the ability to speak woman to woman or mother to mother, female workers hold great sway over the vaccination process."

This article explores the strategy of drawing on women to act as polio's frontline workers: the vaccinators and social mobilisers who go door-to-door each month to identify every eligible child in the household and ensure that parents accept the oral polio vaccine (OPV) each time it is offered. "In the socially conservative communities where polio still persists today, cultural norms often do not allow male vaccinators to enter a home, or even communicate with women on the doorstep." For example, in Afghanistan's Southern Region, responsible for 80 cases of polio in 2011 and 7 to date in 2012, approximately 23% of unvaccinated children are missed due to social issues. Because women in that region are unable to engage with all-male vaccination teams, older siblings are often the ones to bring children out for vaccination. However, without an opportunity to engage directly with mothers on the importance of OPV for all children every time it is offered, opportunities to vaccinate more children are missed each campaign.

In the face of this challenge, in each of the polio sanctuaries - even in the most conservative areas - small numbers of women have come forward to support the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) in ways that, according to this article, are culturally and socially acceptable, raising hopes for broader engagement. The example cited here is that of women mobilising change in Afghanistan. In 2008, UNICEF launched an initiative in Jalalabad to engage female literacy students for polio eradication. In 2011, the GPEI attempted to replicate this structure in the South, orienting literacy students on the polio programme and recruiting them as social mobilisers. "The programme, and the Government, has noted the impact these women can have....In April [2012], female teams in Kandahar have begun vaccinating children at local shrines and picnic sites....Through the newly implemented shrine strategy, thousands of children are vaccinated during weekly 'family days.' The children, mostly from inaccessible and nomadic areas, are those at the highest risk to polio infection." The polio programme has identified most of its female team members either through schools, literacy centres, or through the Department of Women's Affairs. Organisers have found that women who are already engaging in programmes or social activities outside their households make ideal candidates.