Martha Dodray – health worker in remote Bihar gets UN award for anti-polio efforts
Martha Dodray, a dedicated woman health worker from rural Bihar has done the country proud by bagging global UN award for her commitment and dedication in eradicating of polio in India. United Nation has conferred the “UN Frontline Workers Global Leadership Award” to Martha Dodray, an Auxiliary Nurse & Midwife (ANM) from Darbhanga district of Bihar. The award was given in recognition of the roles to individuals, organizations, and corporations played in supporting the work of the United Nations’ to advance global peace, justice, and prosperity.
She represented the worldwide polio frontline workers, whose contribution to the cause of global health has been recognised and awarded by the United Nations Foundation this year.
Martha, who travels several kilometers a day under tough conditions in one of the most backward rural hinterland of Bihar to administer polio drops to children in the area, has been working day and night to ensure that polio is eradicated.
India has remained polio-free for almost three years now and will get a polio-free status in January next year if no more fresh case of wil polio virus is detected.
Martha is living alone in a Primary Health Centre without electricity and after leaving her own three children in far- away Jharkhand only to see that children of Bihar are polio-free.
"It is my duty to see that all children are free from polio virus and that is why I travel so many kilometers a day to administer polio drops to children going door to door in the interiors of Bihar.
"I hardly meet my children one or twice a year and I live where there is no electricity. But my zeal will not go till every child is made free from polio," she said after meeting officials in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, where she was felicitated.
The health worker, the only person from the Asian region chosen for the honour, has received the award.
The United Nations Foundation and the United Nations Association of the USA (UNA-USA) honored recipients of the 2013 Global Leadership Awards at the annual Global Leadership Dinner in New York City on 6 November 2013.
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