LOCAL NURSES ON INDIA POLIO MISSION
TWO Stonehaven nurses left the UK for India on Tuesday to play an active role in a massive campaign to wipe out polio.
The duo, Helen Smith, a member of Stonehaven Rotary Club and senior practice nurse at Stonehaven Medical Centre and fellow nurse Rona Coull, who has close links to the club, were among a party of 34 Rotarians heading for Lucknow to take part in a national immunisation programme.
The visit to India backs the attempt by Rotary International to end the scourge of polio through their PolioPlus campaign which was launched in 1985.
Since then, Rotarians have worked with the World Health Organisation and UNICEF to immunise children against the polio virus. Two billion children have already been protected and now just four countries remain where the disease is prevalent - India, Pakistan, Nigeria and Afghanistan.
The Stonehaven nurses travelled to Lucknow via Delhi and on arrival at their destination were due to be briefed by local health workers before being allocated to specific areas where for two days they will help with vaccination of children under five years old.
They will also take to the streets and work with local representatives to try to trace children who did not attend for vaccination at official centres.
Before leaving Stonehaven, Helen Smith said that the target throughout the whole of India was to vaccinate 157million children under five years old - a mind-boggling objective.
And she said this was a programme she wanted to get involved with after hearing details outlined at a Rotary conference last year.
"Given Stonehaven's excellent record in supporting the fight to eradicate polio throughout the world, I thought it would be a good idea to get involved," she said.
Both Helen and Rona are due back in the UK in the middle of this month.
Helen, holder of a top Rotary honour - a Paul Harris Fellowship - has also been closely involved in a campaign to revolutionise maternity care in a part of Sierra Leone.
She has been part of an international team working on a proposal to convert the ground floor of the Hostel of Hope Fistula Clinic, Aberdeen, Freetown in Sierra Leone, into an outpatient ante-natal/post natal area, baby delivery area with the rest of the space for post natal beds.
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Weather for Stonehaven
Thursday 24 May 2012
Today
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Temperature: 9 C to 15 C
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