DUBAI // A short film is being screened at labour camps in Dubai as part of a campaign against polio in Pakistan.
Leap of Faith was produced by Image Nation Abu Dhabi and tells the story of a Pakistani father, whose daughter has polio, working as a taxi driver in the UAE.
It is part of Image Nation's multimedia campaign against the disease in Pakistan, one of only three countries left in the world where polio remains endemic.
The Urdu-language film lasts about two and a half minutes and centres around the story of the driver who, nostalgic for home, has a letter written to his daughter in which he expresses regret for not having her vaccinated.
"I've made some mistakes in the past," the father says. "I should have had you vaccinated."
The daughter is then depicted sitting beside her crutches.
The video ends with the message, "Protect your children from polio and other preventable diseases. Your courage will keep them healthy."
The film is available on YouTube in three versions - one with no subtitles and two with subtitles in English and Arabic.
There is also a Facebook page available at www.facebook.com/leapoffaith2014.
The screenings will take place at weekends in Dubai throughout August.
The first are at Al Naboodah Camp in Al Ruwaya on Thursday from 6pm to 10pm, and at Dulsco Camp in Sonapur on Friday at the same times.
Leap of Faith is also being shown prior to arrival on all Etihad Airways flights from Lahore, Islamabad, Peshawar and Karachi throughout this month, the airline said.
"Image Nation Abu Dhabi is proud to be playing a part in raising awareness about polio within the Pakistani community in the UAE," said Mohamed Al Mubarak, the company's chairman.
"Working together, we can strive to ensure healthy childhoods for the young people of Pakistan."
The film is one of several UAE efforts towards polio eradication in Pakistan.
More than 3 million children in Pakistan have been vaccinated against the disease as part of a UAE Pakistan Assistance Programme that started in June.
The programme aimed to vaccinate more than 3.6 million children against five forms of the disease, treating them in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and 12 tribal areas.
In April, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, pledged to donate Dh440 million towards polio eradication.
The country has also gathered Pakistan's religious leaders to encourage vaccination, and the UAE army has visited areas in northern Pakistan on a humanitarian mission.
Most of Pakistan is polio-free, but transmission is intense in tribal areas that experience attacks on health workers and resistance to immunisation, according to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.
Of the total 131 polio cases reported in the world so far this year, 102 have been in Pakistan.
Polio is a highly infectious viral disease that mainly affects young children under the age of 5 and can cause paralysis in some cases. There is no cure and immunisation is the only way to prevent the disease.
Among people who have been paralysed, between 5 and 10 per cent die when their breathing muscles become immobilised, the World Health Organisation says.
Global eradication efforts were launched in 1988, when polio was endemic in 125 countries.
Because of those efforts, more than 10 million people who would otherwise be paralysed are walking, and more than 1.5 million childhood deaths have been prevented, the WHO says.
In May, the organisation declared the new spread of wild poliovirus a public health emergency of international concern.
lcarroll@thenational.ae
