UK Diaspora Engagement with Polio Eradication in Pakistan

Global One is working to engage the UK diaspora (and, through its activities, the global diaspora, by extension) in polio eradication in Pakistan by building support for polio eradication among diaspora faith leaders in the UK and with the GPEI. The work involves engaging influential/skilled diaspora women to become ambassadors - championing the cause through media and community engagement - and mobilising a delegation of diaspora stakeholders to support the strategy and capacity of Pakistan's Polio Task Force. Activities include the following:

With faith leaders, Global One:

• conducted a short survey to map opinions on where Muslims in the UK look to for healthcare advice, such as doctors, faith leaders, and family members. A report titled "Where Muslims in the UK look to for Healthcare Advice" was produced based on the findings, which have been kept in mind whilst planning activities with faith leaders.
• had conversations with Centre for Islam and Medicine (CIM) regarding the project, which resulted in them assisting Global One in identifying faith leaders that have a background in both healthcare as well as Islamic studies. An example of such a faith leader is Shaykh Dr Asim Yusuf, who is an Islamic scholar as well as psychiatrist based in Wolverhampton, UK.
• brought on board Shaykh Dr Asim Yusuf and produced training resource material on "Islam and Public Health", which focuses on the importance of preventative health measures, including vaccinations, within the Islamic framework. The training is aimed at future scholars and faith leaders who are in training at Islamic institutions in the UK. The training seeks to equip them with knowledge from the Quran and hadith to understand the role of faith leaders in promoting good healthcare practices in the community. Trainings are being scheduled in London and Birmingham.
• produced what are intended to be easy-to-read fact sheets based on the Islam and Public Health training for faith leaders to distribute in mosques and to make available on Islamic websites where people turn when asking fiqh-related questions. (Fiqh is an Arabic term meaning "deep understanding" or "full comprehension". It refers to the body of Islamic law extracted from detailed Islamic sources (which are studied in the principles of Islamic jurisprudence) and the process of gaining knowledge of Islam through jurisprudence.). These will have evidence from the Quran and Hadith about the importance of preventative health. Click here to view one of the factsheets in PDF format.
• produced a template khutbah (sermon, which serves as the primary formal occasion for public preaching in the Islamic tradition) about health with the assistance of Muslim Council of Britain (MCB). ("Ultimately, we rely on Allah for our good health and for all the blessings He bestows on us. We must give our best efforts and look after ourselves to the best of our ability and leave the rest to Allah.") [Click here [PDF] to read part 1 of the khutbah; click here [PDF] for part 2.] The MCB has a wide reach, as it is a national representative Muslim umbrella body with over 500 affiliated national, regional and local organisations, mosques, charities, and schools. Mosques will deliver the khutbah on Fridays on the importance of health promotion in Islam and touch upon preventative health measures such as vaccines. The mosques they plan to reach out to include East London Mosque, Wembley Mosque, Harrow Central Mosque, London Central Mosque, Finsbury Park Mosque, Croydon Mosque, Medina Mosque, Birmingham Central Mosque, Manchester Central Mosque, and Glasgow Central Mosque. These mosques were chosen keeping in mind high attendance from the Pakistani diaspora during Friday prayers.
• is working with a female scholar to produce a toolkit and training guide on the importance of maternal and child health that will promote the importance of vaccination and the rights of a child from an Islamic perspective.

Global One has worked specifically with women; for example:

• In a visit to Pakistan in March 2016, they met with relevant women working in the polio eradication taskforce in Pakistan. This included: Senator Ayesha Raza Farooq, who is the Prime Minister's Focal Person for Polio Eradication; Huma Khawar, a journalist who writes for GAVI Alliance, Johns Hopkins University, and local media newspapers in Pakistan such as Dawn News on stories related to immunisation; and Lubna Hashmat, who is heading the Pakistan CSOs [civil society organisations] Coalition for Health and Immunisation (PCCHI), which is a consortium of NGOs in Pakistan working on improving health outcomes. By meeting with these women in Pakistan, Global One was able to discuss how women from the diaspora in the UK could meaningfully feed into their efforts. The need for women to highlight the role of women in the eradication initiative, alongside other success stories with regard to eliminating polio, was brought up repeatedly in those discussions. According to Global One, while the media industry in Pakistan reports regularly on the issue of polio, there is little news in the mainstream media, as well as in ethnic and mainstream media in the UK. This is where women in the diaspora, especially those working with large mainstream media outlets, could feed into the initiative.
• Upon returning to the UK, Global One held discussions with journalists from the diaspora in the UK on their potential role in the eradication initiative. They also reached out to media outlets such as the Guardian, Reuters, Newsweek Middle East, and digital news outlets such as Muftah with their project and the need for them to highlight the role of women in the polio eradication initiative in Pakistan. The strategic thought behind this is to shift the rhetoric from polio being a political issue, to the important role women play as agents of change in their communities. It is hoped that this will strengthen the morale of women working on the frontlines by giving them recognition, as well as to encourage them to continue their efforts.
• Global One reached out to Rotary International in the UK and United States (US) to discuss how they could work together to amplify efforts in vaccinating refugee and nomadic populations. They then hosted photo exhibitions in London and Bradford, UK that exhibited photos taken by a female Pakistani photojournalist named Khaula Jamil who was on assignment with Rotary International, highlighting the role of women to polio eradication in Pakistan, from the lady health workers who meet families face-to-face to the vaccinators and co-ordinators who organise and execute campaigns, as well as the determination of vaccinators to vaccinate every child, irrespective of their domicile. This blog post by Aleena Khan describes the experience of the exhibition, which saw Khaula sharing details of her work as a photographer (e.g., "how the most fascinating moment of the assignment was when she followed vaccinators trying to reach children on the move – they had seconds to get on a bus, administer polio drops and jump off the bus before it left for the next station!") and other change makers discussing the critical role of women to polio eradication in Pakistan. To aid their conversations, they also screened Rotary's video "Walk with Pride", which outlines the difficulties of immunising children in transit. (See below.) Click here to watch an episode of the TV programme Living The Life in which Amina Khalid from Global One speaks about the polio exhibitions.

Global One aims to build a coalition of cross-sector diaspora players to overcome the significant barriers and obstacles seen thus far in the polio eradication journey due to a highly cultural and faith-specific context. In partnership with other organisations, Global One's coalition building has involved the following:

• In March-April 2016, Global One visited Islamabad, Pakistan and met with the GPEI stakeholders. A strategy paper was then produced (click here [PDF]) to highlight the strengths and challenges faced by the polio eradication initiative in Pakistan and strategies for collaboration based on the meetings with relevant stakeholders (e.g., Senator Ayesha Raza Farooq, Prime Minister's Focal Person for Polio Eradication; Dr Rana Muhammad Safdar, Coordinator National Emergency Operation Centre and Chief Field Epidemiology & Disease Surveillance Division NIH; Lubna Hashmat, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Civil Society Human and Institutional Development Programme (CHIP) and Chair of Pakistan CSO Coalition for Health and Immunisation (PCCHI); Jalpa Ratna, Deputy Chief – Polio, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF); Chris Athayde, Team Leader, Health, UK Department for International Development (DFID); Yohei Ishiguro, Project Formulation Advisor (Health), JICA; Huma Khawar, Advisor Advocacy & Communication, GAVI; among other NGOs.
• In January 2017, Global One led a delegation of Muslim NGOs that have an interest in working in Pakistan on healthcare issues on a visit that was arranged in partnership with PCCHI. The delegation consisted of the following NGOs: Al-Khair Foundation, Muslim Charity, Islamic Help, MCEC Palmers Green Mosque, and a freelance female journalist. The delegation met with NGOs and government and Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) stakeholders and visited field areas in Khyber Pakhtun Khwa (KPK) and Sindh. The aim of the delegation was for the Muslim NGOs to learn about the realities of the situation in Pakistan and come up with methods of collaboration with the local NGOs and government bodies.
• The main strengths observed through the discussions in Pakistan were political advocacy, communications strategies, and engagement with faith leaders. However, challenges included maintenance of cold storage, social mobilisation, monitoring and accountability, and mitigating security issues and politics. Keeping these in mind, the delegates are coming up with strategies, in collaboration with local NGOs and the government, about how to overcome these barriers to immunisation. An action plan is being produced based on the delegation visit in January 2017. It will focus on how the Muslim NGOs can reach children that are likely to be missed when it comes to vaccinations, which includes children from migrant populations, those in hard-to-reach areas, and those in areas of political unrest and conflict. It will also emphasise strengthening routine immunisation and carrying out polio-plus initiatives that encapsulate issues such as water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), maternal and child health, and better nutrition along with polio.

Immunisation and Vaccines

Despite being one of the few diseases that can be completely eradicated, polio still remains endemic in two countries: Pakistan and Afghanistan. Children living in areas with poor public health services, and areas where immunity levels are low, are at a higher risk of suffering from polio-paralysis unless the virus is eradicated. With the unabating threat of polio in Pakistan, the rising urgency of the situation, and as a Muslim majority country, the need to engage Muslims in exploring innovative ways of eradicating the disease has become increasingly pressing to Global One. Despite the fact that the oral polio vaccine (OPV) has been declared halal by major Islamic leaders such as the Grand Sheikh Tantawi of Al-Azhar University, the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, and the Majelis Council of Ulemmas in Indonesia, communities still refuse drops.