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ADVANCING KNOWLEDGE THROUGH COLLABORATION

Meeting my neighbors on the other side of the Atlantic

by D’Ann Van Lente

The author with one of the many Nigerian children who were immunized against polio.

In November 2004, I participated in a National Immunization Days (NID) campaign to provide polio vaccine and vitamin A to children of Nigeria. NID, a major component of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, is sponsored by UNICEF, the World Health Organization (WHO), Rotary International and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2003, as a result of the program, 415 million children under 5 years of age were vaccinated in 55 countries using more than 2.2 billion doses of oral polio vaccine (Global Polio Eradication Initiative, n.d.). Still, it’s an uphill battle. In 2004, 12 countries previously considered “polio-free” were reinfected (UNICEF, n.d.).

I was part of a team of 20 people who traveled to Nigeria under the auspices of WHO and Rotary International. There, we spent 10 days working 10 hours a day to immunize children against polio—14 of us in Lagos, Nigeria’s capital and largest city.

Before our arrival and for the first few hours in the country, I felt terrified. I didn’t know anyone in the group. I was far from home and remembered hearing how Lagos was so dangerous. After going through customs, I saw many soldiers with Uzi submachine guns who looked as though they were ready to shoot anyone at any time. Suddenly, a very large man with an entourage came in, singing Rotary songs. The soldiers parted and stood in a nonthreatening manner. I was relieved.

On the first day of NID—the “kickoff”—I met a woman who walked more than 2 ½ hours to bring her daughter for vaccination. I also met a woman whose daughter was named Promise. She was born the day her mother learned the Americans were coming to her area with polio vaccine. She was named Promise because now there was a promise that her daughter would not get polio.

We reached out to children living in deplorable conditions, where no should have to live. Open sewage, unhealthy water and absolutely terrible housing were the norms. When told by local people not go into those dreadful areas because I was an American and a woman, I replied, “Children are living there, so I need to go there, also.”

I expected to find children crying, unloved and abandoned. Instead, I found children happy and laughing, with mothers providing love and care. I expected to find children illiterate and begging. Instead, I found 4-year-old children attending school, able to read and write in English as well as their own language. (There are approximately 250 languages in Nigeria.) In addition to their own language, Muslim children were reading and writing English and also Arabic. Only those debilitated by polio were begging. All others tried to earn money by laboring, or by selling homemade goods or anything else people might want or need.

While traveling to outlying areas, we encountered a group of men who refused to allow their children to receive the vaccine. I watched as local Nigerians argued with the men, and I took note of the person who appeared to be the leader. Approaching him, I introduced myself as a nurse from America and told him children in my country were not afraid of contracting polio because they received vaccine.

I asked the man what he knew about polio; he knew very little. I explained what the disease was and how people contracted it. He asked me if the vaccine came from America; he was Muslim and afraid of vaccine from America. I explained that it came from Geneva, in Switzerland, and that officials from Nigeria had been brought to Switzerland to show them all the measures that had been taken to ensure the vaccine was safe and clean. I explained that children in other Muslim countries also received the vaccine and were safe. I told him, as a nurse and a woman, I would not allow any children to receive vaccine I wouldn’t give to my own children. Slowly, he waved his daughter over and allowed her to receive the vaccine. After that, the other men allowed their children to receive it, also.

The people in Nigeria were caring and helpful. I couldn’t have asked for better hospitality from those who worked side by side with us. I was touched and moved, and am grateful for the experience. I know I made a difference and helped demonstrate to people in Nigeria that, contrary to what many believe, not all Americans are “bad,” that there are people who truly care and are willing to help. My neighborhood is no longer just the people on my street or in my city. It includes every person in every country. RNL

D’Ann Van Lente, RN, BSN, NCSN, is a resident of Cape Coral, Fla.

References

Global Polio Eradication Initiative. (n.d.). National immunization days (para. 2). Retrieved June 9, 2006.

UNICEF. (n.d.). Polio drive seeks to vaccinate 100 million children in Africa (para. 5). Retrieved June 9, 2006.

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