Director & Photographer
Patna, India 2016
Patna in the state of Bihar rests beneath the river Ganges and is home to over 1.6M.
After only vaccinating her children for Polio 4 months ago, this woman now goes door to door in her neighbourhood in Patna, educating other mothers and keeping track of their children's vaccination rounds. Thanks to women like this India has been polio free for 4 years. We are 99.9% of the way to eliminating it forever thanks to the efforts of United Nations Rotary, International and Gates Foundation.
I was lucky to meet Shobha, Rubina and Versha, all Community Mobilization Coordinators (CMC) who conduct meetings with neighbourhood residents (padosi baithak), mothers (Mata baithak) and resistant family members to dispel misconceptions about the polio vaccine and to encourage resistant families to immunize their children and influence others. Part of her role identifies all likely non-acceptors and counsels them by addressing misconceptions and fear for OPV.
Their efforts have helped India to be polio free for the last 4 years and was an absolute honour to meet them.