On a recent morning, a father and his 9-year-old daughter Zahra, headed to a vaccination site, for her to receive her second dose of protection from polio. But she couldn’t walk there — after she was trapped under rubble when their home was shelled, her broken leg had to be kept straight with steel pins. Instead, her father carried her on his back for about an hour.
Polio has been eradicated from Gaza for a quarter of a century. But the conflict over the last year and ensuing unsanitary conditions have brought the disease back, with one confirmed case reported in August.
Parents in Gaza dressed their children up to receive the vaccinations — putting them in bow ties and placing ribbons in their hair. Zahra wore a beautiful black and red dress and had her hair braided, said Rosalia Bollen, communication specialist at UNICEF in Palestine, but her leg “looked so incredibly painful.”
About the author
Sara Jervingsarajerving
Sara Jerving is a Senior Reporter at Devex, where she covers global health. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, VICE News, and Bloomberg News among others. Sara holds a master's degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism where she was a Lorana Sullivan fellow. She was a finalist for One World Media's Digital Media Award in 2021; a finalist for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists in 2018; and she was part of a VICE News Tonight on HBO team that received an Emmy nomination in 2018. She received the Philip Greer Memorial Award from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 2014.
