Large-scale polio vaccine campaign underway in Gaza

the United Nations relief and works agency has started its polio vaccine campaign in Gaza today the organization says polio vaccines have arrived and it will be part of vaccinating roughly 640,000 children under the age of 10 joining us now is Rachel Cummings from save the children she's in Gaza right now Rachel thanks for being here thank you for having me thanks for the opportunity of course and this war between Israel and Hamas rages on let's have you start by telling us exactly where you're located and describe what you're seeing around you every day yeah so I'm I'm calling in from D Balo which is in the middle area of the Gaza Strip um and we relocated here in May following the incursion into Rafa um in at the beginning of May but the situation in Del Bala canun and across the hall of Gaza is extraordinary and the situation for is absolutely dire uh you know as you said the war continues the ongoing bombardment The Continuous drone Activity The Continuous fighting across Gaza and also of course the force displacement of families and children continues into uh now becoming 10 11 months uh which results in children being moved from inadequate shelter to inadequate Selter time and time again even our staff are being uh having to relocate uh and evacuate from areas that are seemed unsafe having given evacuated notices from uh from the Israeli forces so the situation is very tenic it's very fluid it's very complex but the reality for children is is absolutely extraordinary there has been no education for any child in Gaza since October so children are everywhere outside you see children everywhere in unsanitary and unsafe conditions now we have challenges of obviously access to water but the sewage systems are broken which means you have sewage open sewage in the streets and people walking through open sew as you can see there in the photograph the situation is terrible the smell is incredible the heat flies um absolutely awful tell us more about what save the children is doing in Gaza because I know you're you're there to help this situation yeah sa the children's been working in Gaza for decades and since October we've been working with our partners Palestinian Partners we've been doing an amazing job and save the children now also providing services to children we're running a health center we're running nutrition points in communities uh we know that mly s is a major concern the major risk for children children are dying unnecessarily uh because they are malnourished so uh finding children in the communities that are malnourished and then giving them the treatment that they need also trying to prevent Mal pron um so sa the children are running Child Protection Services as well uh trying to provide some relief for children some psychosocial support some well-being support for children and their families but you know we're scratching the surface it's it's absolutely not enough we're providing water water Trucking doing some minor Rehabilitation but again we know that it's not enough of our health center is one of the vaccination sites and today we vaccinated around 1,800 children uh alongside wh and partners which is a great achievement but uh there is so much more to do uh not only for polio but for all the vaccine preventable diseases really this whole polio campaign sparked from a baby that uh contracted polio and it is now partially paralyzed so it really is deeply and Gravely affecting children uh what are some of the challenges you might face in this vaccination campaign oh there are huge challenges we have um a large um sorry let me start that again if I can um there are huge challenges we have um to engage with communities we have to talk to communities so people understand generally mothers understand the importance of vaccination um and we're lucky in Gaza that they had a very high vaccination coverage before the war but of course there are risks for people going from one place to another in Gaza from traveling from their shelter uh into a clinic there is risk in that so uh communities parents need to trust that the vaccines that will be there that the staff will be there that are trained and able to provide the services uh they also have to trust that they will not be put at risk by traveling and entering a health facility and we know throughout this war the health facilities have been targets so uh it's very very concerning it's very high risk yeah that does bring me to my next point the United Nations was pushing for a pause in fighting for this campaign and it sounds like that's happening however with the latest news of the six hostages found dead today are you concerned for your staff and the people of Gaza during this time I mean like said they're going to be traveling from point A to point B to get these vaccines there there must be some safety concerns there still yeah absolutely I mean there's constant safety concerns and we're deeply concerned about our staff their families and all the children uh across across G uh there has been a um potential low in activity in D Balor today uh less drone activity less SS of gunfire Etc but again it's very precarious it's very fragile we do not know uh what the next hour is going to bring so we're always deeply concerned about the safety of our staff and and the communities around us Rachel we appreciate this thank you so much that's Rachel Cummings from save the children in Gaza thank you