Polio can only be kicked out in Nigeria if fathers get involved – UNICEF

Eki George, Social Behaviour Change Communication Specialist of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Bauchi Field Office, has said that polio disease will be kicked out in Nigeria if parents particularly men, cooperate with women on children vaccination.

George, who spoke at an interaction with newsmen during a field visit in Misau Local Government Area of the State, said that the vaccination of children reduces the risk of contracting diseases during an outbreak of any disease.

“We want to see that fathers are fully involved in promoting vaccination in their families for the good health of their children, because vaccination is not only for children, also for pregnant women to be vaccinated.

“UNICEF as an organization is ready to support State and Local Governments to ensure that men are fully making decision in order to ensure that their children are vaccinated so that we kick out polio in the country.

“Mother’s are complaining that male parents don’t give them permission in order to take their children to hospital for vaccination.

“We selected two Local Government Areas in the State which are Ningi and Misau for our pilot studies and the interest of picking the two LGAs are what we call zero LGAs”, he said.

He added that “zero LGAs means the communities that their children have never received a single dose of vaccination, which is not good because, it will lead to disaster.”

Speaking on behalf of the male parents, Yahaya Barde, expressed their appreciation to UNICEF for training them on the importance of children vaccination.

Barde assured of fathers’ preparedness to enhancing and supporting the group in order to take the training to other parents, “so that they cooperate with female parents in order to be taking their children to hospitals for vaccination, so that their bodies will look good and healthy.”