A boy in the displaced persons camp waves at the visiting team.
By Carol Pandak, Director of PolioPlus for Rotary International
As we drove away from the Muna camp for Internally Displaced Persons on the outskirts of Maiduguri, the capital city of restive Borno State in Nigeria, a young boy dressed in brown tunic and pants gave us a friendly, somewhat surprised wave.
At 60,000 inhabitants, the camp had doubled in size since the same time last year as conflict continues to push people from their homes. My visit to the camp was the final stop on a trip to Nigeria with the Chair of Rotary’s International PolioPlus Committee, Mike McGovern, on the occasion of the country having not reported a case of polio for a year. But while we marked the date on the calendar, the visit was not celebratory. Nigeria had reported no cases of polio for two years between 2014 and 2016, and all were disappointed by the new cases identified in Borno in August of last year.
We saw and did many things during the trip with the deputy state governor, including immunizing newborn babies in the camp to protect them from polio. We drank water from a …read more
Source:: Rotary International Blog
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