Voice of America Deewa service in collaboration with Emergency Operations Center Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (EOC) held theatres in various schools in Swat with a view to promoting vaccination among students and highlighting the role of teachers as spiritual parents in mobilizing students and society in general about significance of essential immunization including polio to prevent spread of infectious diseases.
According to a press release issued here on Monday, Emergency Operations Centre Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (EOC) joined hands with Deewa service of Voice of America (VOA) to help address misconceptions in schools and teaching fraternity in district Swat showcasing the benefits of immunization and risks of not getting vaccinated.
Famous drama writer Noorul Bashar Naveed wrote the script of the theatre plays titled” The journey of hope” while senior artists performed the roles of teachers, students, and vaccinators saying that vaccinations are beneficial for children and parents must fulfil their religious and moral obligation by vaccinating their children against all preventable diseases.
The writer tried to remove all types of misconceptions and myths about vaccination, particularly religious misconceptions and shed light on importance of vaccination for people on the move.
The theatre plays featured performances by professional actors who used powerful dialogue, script, music to engage students and audience and the message was delivered in an age -appropriate way to cater to the needs of these children.
Two theatres were conducted in Almadina Public School Saidu Sharif and Signature Public School Amankot Swat wherein over 500 students participated along with representatives of district administration and health department.
Talking to media on the occasion, Assistant Commissioner Babuzai, Asghar Surrani and District Health Officer Swat, Dr Saleem Khan Khan highly appreciated the initiative saying that it was a good activity for the young students and such infotainments were need of the hour to clear the misconceptions related to polio and other essential immunizations in the new generation.
They said that students are young minds, and they can play a pivotal role in spreading awareness about vaccination in the society and be the programme ambassadors.
AC Babuzai Asghar Surrani said that Swat is among the outbreak districts as per new categorization of Technical Advisory Group (TAG) where the environmental sample was positive lately indicating virus circulation in the district that can result in outbreak of wild polio virus cases in the district and adjoining areas.
He said that Swat is a tourist spot hosting huge numbers of people from every part of the country making it high risk in terms of virus transmission and shedding of virus from human guts therefore necessitating special measures to ensure vaccination of eligible children at regular intervals.
At the end of the plays the audience including students and teachers shared their feedback appreciating the initiative saying that they enjoyed each bit of the play as the message about vaccination was communicated in a subtle manner involving lively characters from everyday life.
They hoped that in future more plays will be organized to promote essential immunization including polio vaccination that will result in immunization of all eligible children and bring down morbidity and mortality rates in the region.