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Colourful rangolis, appeal from religious leaders set tone for Measles-Rubella campaign

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Senior Correspondent

NewsBits.in

BHOPAL: A week ahead of the launch of the all important Measles-Rubella vaccine, the tone is being set for awareness and maximum coverage across MP.

As part of the awareness drive, about 200 colourful and innovative rangolis in Bhopal and around 4000 in districts of Jhabua, Dhar, Betul, Harda and Umaria were made to welcome the vaccine which will be launched in Bhopal on January 15, 2019.

Meanwhile, in another initiative, 15 religious leaders came together to extend their support to the vaccination drive in a programme organized by NGO Spandan with support of UNICEF, MP office and state health department.

This time State Health Department has estimated that they will be covering 2.30 crores children in age group of nine months to 15 years. This is painless vaccine with auto-lock syringe.

Rangolis set the tone

Some areas in Bhopal where the Rangolis were made included Bhopal airport, 10 number market, Chowk bazar, BMC office, Emerald city, Aura mall, Gandhi Bhawan, JP Hospital,  ISBT, Railway station, Bhopal Utsav mela, UNICEF Office in Bhopal and many others.

Bhopal Airport joined hands in the drive and a beautiful rangoli was drawn at the departure lounge of the airport by Madhavi Tiwari.

The awareness drive may have reached around 40-50,000 people as public places were selected for message giving. In some places the rangolis would not be wiped off.

The initiative was jointly taken by NGOs Sandhiya, Vasudha Sansthan, Synergy Sanathan, Harda, Gram Bharti Mahila Mandal, Betul, ANSH Happiness Society and SPANDAN as part of advocacy and communication effort of UNICEF and with support of Health Department and district health teams.

Dr Mainak Chatterjee Health Officer was in Jhabua to support this while Anil Gulati, Communication Specialist, UNICEF, Dr Vandana Bhatia, Health Specialist, UNICEF, Sujan Sarkar, Planning and Monitoring officer UNICEF visited and supported the effort.

Support of faith leaders

About 15 leaders of different faith leaders met today at Bhopal and committed their support upcoming Measles Rubella Vaccination programme. Dr Vandana Bhatia made a presentation on importance of measles rubella vaccination.

She said that this is for all children from nine months to 15 years of age, irrespective of whether they have received MR vaccine earlier or not. We need to ensure that we cover all children and look for unreached children, she said.

Anil Soumitra of Spandan and Anil Gulati, Communication Specialist also spoke. Sanjay Singh, Communication for Development Specialist and Sujan Sarkar, Planning Monitoring Officer, UNICEF were also present.

The religious leaders included Naziya khan, Noor Ullah Yusuf Zai, Shahar Kazi Guna, Kazi Anas Ali, Bhopal, Kazi Hashamat Ali, Shahar Kazi Bhind, Dr. B K Reena , Pt. Ramesh Sharma, Parashuram Mandir, Dr. Fr Shaji E. Stanislaus,  Bhante Shakyaputra Sagar Thero, Gyani Harjeet Singh, Dr. Azhar Beig, Sri Hari Narayan Karan, Sri S P Singh, Gayatri pariwar, Dr Laxminarayan Pandey,Sri Rakesh Tiwari, S G Hasan, Dr Anshul Upadhyay, Ritu Sharma, Dr Deepshikha Harsh and others.