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Gaza mother relieved children are vaccinated against polio
STORY: ::September 1, 2024
::Deir al-Balah, Gaza
::A displaced Gazan is happy her children are now
vaccinated against polio under a UN program
::Wafaa Abdelhadi
Palestinian mother
“Thank God, I am happy that I vaccinated my children against polio so that they don’t suffer from anything in the future God willing. Hopefully all Gazan children get vaccinated not only against polio, but with other vaccinations too.”
“But I gave birth during the war and here she is, living through the war too. When I gave birth to her during the war, I was worried if I will vaccinate her, at one month, at one week, at two months, three months, four months – and where? Where should I go to vaccinate her?”
“We don’t just want vaccinations. We want them to stop the war. Let them stop the war. Every time I get displaced, this is our biggest worry, especially for those who have children. When I flee and move, I would be so worried… it is better for me to die than to keep moving from area to area. I have been displaced seven times.”
Israel and Hamas agreed to pause fighting in areas of Gaza for at least eight hours daily from Sunday to Tuesday (September 3) for the vaccination of 640,000 children against polio.
28-year-old Abdelhadi and her daughters, five-month-old Lynn and five-year-old Roueida, joined other Palestinian families who crowded a UN clinic in the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah. The territory’s health ministry said at least 72,611 children were vaccinated the first day.
The campaign comes after the confirmation last month that a baby was partially paralyzed by the type 2 polio virus, the first such case in the territory in 25 years.
WHO officials say at least 90% of the children need to be vaccinated twice with four weeks between doses for the campaign to succeed, but it faces huge challenges in Gaza, which has been largely destroyed by the war.
Abdelhadi, originally from Khan Younis and whose house was destroyed, said she was displaced seven times since the start of the war in Gaza. She is now staying at her parents’ house in Deir al-Balah, and hopes to return to Khan Younis where her husband is staying with his parents.
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