Partnering with Religious Leaders to Eradicate Polio

"The religious leaders possess a unique opportunity to mobilize communities toward the eradication of Polio."

This blog entry explores the role that religious leaders can play at the community level in the effort to eradicate polio from Afghanistan, one of the three remaining endemic countries. "In Afghanistan, people highly respect the religious leaders. When the message of polio eradication comes from the religious leader, people will trust it and follow the instruction comes from the mosque."

As reported here, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in the southeast region of Afghanistan is regularly in touch with the religious leaders as well as with the Department of Religious Affairs to seek their support in addressing the economic and social factors that contribute to spread of this disease. For example, UNICEF organised an orientation for the religious leaders of Paktia province in March 2013 to mobilise them prior to the National Immunisation Day (NID). The orientation focused on the way in which religious principles support acceptance of the immunisation programme and the successful collaboration between the health service providers and religious leaders during the campaign. Dr. Mohammad Wazir of UNICEF says, "quoting Qur’an and Hadith of the Prophet Mohammad (SAW), we dispelled their fears and explained that immunization does not contradict Islamic principles. In fact, Islamic principles support preventing disease, protecting children and saving lives." He added that, "at the end of the orientation, the religious leaders we met promised to encourage and facilitate the immunization of the children in their respective communities." After the orientation, Dr. Wazir visited one of the biggest mosques in Gardez city and found that the mosque's religious leader was sending the clear message that it is everyone's responsibility to ensure that every child receives two drops of the oral polio vaccine (OPV) every time to eradicate polio.

To support that work, UNICEF provided a Khutwa (booklet for religious talk) written in the local language to all religious leaders through the regional Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) management team and the department of religious affairs. The Director of Religious Affairs disseminated that Khutwa to all 11 district religious affairs of Paktia. Mawlawi Mohammad Dawoud Khatib of Itifaq Market Mosque in Gardez city is now using the Khutwa during his religious talk. He says that it is now easy for him to spread the message of polio.

Quoted here is a school monitoring focal person for the Department of Education in Paktia. He explains that Allah enjoins believers to seek protection for themselves and their families. Immunisation is a way of seeking protection for children, and surely, protection (prevention) is better than cure. He asks all teachers to convince people that it is an obligation to protect their children from contracting polio, thereby saving both current and future generations.

The blog's author concludes that it is necessary to organise educational seminars for local religious leaders, conducted by highly respected religious leaders with health advocacy experience, to prepare them to serve as advocates for immunisation against polio in their respective communities. In addition to sensitising others to the benefits of immunisation and dispelling the misconceptions, rumours, and fears that have rendered immunisation efforts ineffective thus far, they can "provide a view of Islam as a peaceful, compassionate religion whose adherents worship Allah and serve mankind."