PESHAWAR: A series of street plays titled ‘Mashaloona’ started by the government to deal with polio vaccination refusals and create demands for the vaccine is making strides as the dialogues scripted in line with the local culture have been received well by the residents of areas with widespread opposition to immunisation on various pretexts.

The first live performance by senior PTV actors with background music was meant to allay the people’s fears about vaccination and convince them that poliomyelitis, a childhood ailment, was preventable only through vaccination.

Noorul Bashar Naveed, who wrote dialogues and the music, also directed the stage performers to convey the message to the people at grassroots level for the early polio elimination.

“We have so far staged five episodes of the street plays in areas, where children weren’t vaccinated due to misconceptions on religious grounds or the people made irrelevant demands for vaccinating children, and the response was encouraging,” he said.

Writer says colleges, schools, jirga halls jam-packed in polio-hit areas

The plays were performed in Lakki Marwat, Bannu, Peshawar, Charsadda and Mardan with the schoolchildren both boys and girls watching them with a keen interest.

Mr Bashar, an acclaimed writer, said the drama artists were known faces, so the people loved to watch them in own areas leading to the success of the initiative.

He said the colleges, schools and jirga halls were jam-packed for the plays.

“For every area, we are using a script, which is commensurate with the local culture and issues. If an area has more vaccination refusals on religious grounds, we present the drama to dismiss the people’s incorrect thoughts about polio vaccine,” he said.

The writer said the people were educated on why to avoid disabilities by highlighting the problems of handicapped children as parents turned away vaccinators.

“The play named Mashaloona (light) seeks to end darkness and enlighten parents about the significance of vaccination. Some actors like Sarwat Ali have been performing after a gap of two decades just for the sake of the children’s health,” he said.

Dr Nadeem Jan, the technical focal person for anti-polio programme in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, told Dawnthat the theatrical performancewas an old way to communicate directly with the target audience, especially in areas without entertainment.

He said the surge in polio incidence in the province had been a cause of concern, so novel ways were found to convince parents about the children’s vaccination.

The focal person said the programme had shown some good results in Bannu and Lakki Marwat districts, where most of the province’s 91 cases were reported, as the residents were changing their minds to protect children from disabilities.

“Our main focus is hold theatres in high-risk areas, where virus is very active. The theater performers are proving their skills and we hope that there will be motivation for vaccination,” he said.

Dr Nadeem said some other strategies had been put in place as part of the communication plan to address vaccination refusals and create a demand for vaccination.

“Theatrical performance is one of the innovative approaches of conveying polio-related messages to the communities in a subtle manner,” he said.

The focal person said themes of the theatre varied from place to place in view of the indigenous issues and primarily focus on medical misconceptions, religious refusals, demand-based refusals, repeated campaigns, misconceptions related to vaccine safety.

Published in Dawn, January 12th, 2020