Students participate Pulse Polio Campaign

As part of creating a mass awareness on the need for eradication of Poliomyelitis, a crippling disease of childhood caused by polio virus, students of a Matriculation School in the city were today involved in administering the oral drops to children under the age of five.

The occasion was the first phase of the Intensive Pulse Polio Campaign programme organised by the Tamil Nadu government to ensure that the state continued to remain a Polio-free state for the sixth successive year.

To mark the occasion, the Management of the Everwin Matriculation Higher Secondary School at suburban Kolathur, today chipped in its mite to the noble cause, by involving its students in the campaign.

About 4,000 kids were administered Polio drops at the school premises by the students of Class eight to 12, in the backdrop of a richly-decorated Christmas stage and a replica of Manger where Jesus was born at Bethlehem.

''It is a joint exercise by the school, Chennai City Corporation, local business establishments and the merchants of Kolathur and Permabur to spread the message on the need for eradicating Polio,'' School Correspondent B Purushothaman and Senior Principal Kalaiarasi told UNI.

To bring in an aura of festive mood ahead of the Christmas, 50 boys and 50 girls, dressed as Santa Claus and Angels, greeted the kids and their accompanying parents a wished them a "Merry X-mas".

What's more, all the 4,000-odd children, who were administered oral polio drops by the students, were given a Johnson and Johnson Baby powder and a Tiffin box as gifts, thanks to the gesture of the Perambur and Kolathur Merchants and Traders Association.

''Last year 3,815 kids were administered the drops. This year we expect about 8,000 children (both phases put together), the only place where kids were administered drops in such large numbers'', Mr Purushothaman said.

The school management utilised the occasion to engage the "Santas" and "Angels" to spread the message of peace and harmony by distributing 4,000 pamphlets with Mahatma Gandhi's message and extend Christmas greetings. This was one of the health awareness programme organised by the school management involving the students to keep them abreast of the importance of polio eradication, Mr Purushothaman said. ''Though we have been doing it for the last four years, this was for the first time we linked it with Christmas, as the Pulse polio campaign coincides with the X-mas festivity'', he added.

''Our students will also be involved during the second phase of immunisation on February one'', he said. Chennai Corporation Ward 62 Councillor Ms Shenbagavalli inaugurated the polio immunisation camp.

-- (UNI) -- 21MS12.xml

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