JEDDAH: Saudi volunteers have played a significant role in the anti-polio vaccination campaign and other health awareness programs in Jeddah, said a number of women medical officers.
“The majority of these volunteers are either husbands or other male relatives of women workers. This gives us more freedom in moving around the city to do our work,” one medical officer told Arab News.
The polio campaign, which ended yesterday, covered all residential districts of Jeddah including underdeveloped areas.
“My husband helped me in carrying out my duties by joining the campaign as a volunteer. He participated without any hope of gaining any type of material benefit,” one woman said.
The campaign in Jeddah was successful in providing vaccination to more than 200,000 children. “We visited homes in various parts of Jeddah to provide polio vaccination to children. We were supported by the staff of primary health care centers as well as health institutes and colleges,” she said.
The health centers in Jeddah carry out a number of public awareness campaigns with the help of medical staff and students. The health center in the Jamia District will, in cooperation with King Saud Hospital, organize an awareness campaign against AIDS, advising the public to conduct preliminary tests to know whether they carry the HIV virus.
