Four big long days. From 7 – 10 June I am in Kolkata
training 65 community workers in mobilization skills so that they are able to
deal with the resistant families and are able to take up the challenge of
making them understand the need of polio vaccine for their children. The
challenge for us has been much more! There is regular drop out of these
mobilizers (mostly women between the age group of 19 – 28) as their own
families resist these girls and women from going out of their homes to work!
And they do not want their women to move from house to house, talk to men and
women, convince them about taking polio vaccine because it is socially
unacceptable to them.
So, at times it happens that even on the day of training
they drop out! How to convince those who are supposed to convince others? The
days were hot and humid, but the evenings had a bit of thunderstorm. In fact
the newspapers reported that 4 people died in a wall collapse inside Kolkata,
and two persons died in nearby Hooghly district, about 30 kilometers from
Kolkata, after a lightening stuck a group of people watching a local soccer
match.
Coming back to the training part, I had just one long
session on the first day, and on other days it was mostly coordinating with the
other three trainers, and step in whenever required. I also managed to have
couple of meetings separately : one with the coordinators and another with the
supervisors, to understand gaps, to motivate them into program implementation
and achieve highest standards in reaching the goals set.
