ISLAMABAD, 23rd October, 2015 (WAM) – On the directives of President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan to provide humanitarian and development assistance, the UAE-Pakistan Assistance Programme (UAE-PAP), announced the success of the UAE vaccination programme in Pakistan in 2014-2015, during which it provided 86.6 million vaccine doses to immunise Pakistani children against polio.
The move comes within the initiative of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, to eradicate polio worldwide.
The UAE-PAP said the UAE campaign had achieved its field target of reaching out to 53 areas in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and tribal areas in the Balochistan and Sindh regions. It provided the polio vaccinations in the first and second phases to about 21 million children under five.
Abdullah Khalifa Al Ghafli, Head of the UAE-Pakistan Assistance Programme, said that 86.6 million polio vaccine doses were administered to more than 20.6 million children under five. He noted that this success demonstrates to the world the UAE humanitarian efforts upon the directives of His Highness Sheikh Khalifa, have been effective in protecting the targeted groups from the diseases.
Al Ghafli added that they reflect the UAE's leadership capability and commitment to assisting the needy people and bolstering the international efforts to protect communities from disease.
He stressed the importance of the initiative of Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed to eradicate polio in the world's most polio-afflicted zone, citing the success since the launch of the campaign.
Al Ghafli referred to the gratitude of people of Pakistan to the UAE leadership's continuous humanitarian and development aid to Pakistan.
WAM/Majok