@WHO and @Rotary are helping communities say goodbye to polio with the support of local polio eradication workers like Hafsat from Nigeria, who’s delivering vaccines to those that need it most to people in her community.
Hafsat Ibrahim, (right) a polio core trainer with the World Health Organization (WHO) and mother of five, is proud of the many lives she has protected from polio in her community in Kano State, Nigeria. Her role has helped shape community attitudes toward vaccination, as well as provide the salary necessary to start a small business to support her family.
“I worked with WHO to make sure every child is immunized [and] all my five children have got the vaccine … I'm very happy because their immune system [has] increased and also they are healthier,” Ibrahim told Global Citizen in August. “I have seen the transformation because now that the vaccine is accessible, [there is] no more paralysis of children in the community; no more threat of wild poliovirus.”
As a mother, resident, and experienced health care professional, Ibrahim understands the importance of protecting her community from the deadly disease, and how the journey to eradicate polio at home in Nigeria has had wider implications around the world.