Every step hurts, but it has a purpose
Tabesh survived polio as a child – at a cost. This is his journey to protect other children from the virus
In the quiet shadow outside a muddy house, a young man leans on a metal walker, using a megaphone to encourage parents to take their children out for vaccination.
Ahmad Tabesh Sherzad works as a social mobilizer during the polio immunization campaigns that are held regularly across Afghanistan, one of the last two polio-endemic countries in the world, alongside Pakistan. He grew up in Dehdadi district of Balkh Province, Northern Afghanistan, where he still lives and works.
Tabesh was an energetic boy and full of dreams, like any other child. When weakness struck his right leg, his parents knew something was wrong. They took him from doctor to doctor, holding onto hope. Finally, they found out that Tabesh had contracted polio. “I remember their faces when the doctor told them. They said it was like the light had gone out from my family’s home," says Tabesh with tears in his eyes.
Tabesh’s family believed his future had ended before it had even started. He was only 12 years old. He also found he was treated differently not just by strangers, but by the people closest to him. Even going to school became a daily struggle.
“In the summer heat, walking with a walker, I would be bathed in sweat by the time I got home," he recalls sadly. "People thought someone had thrown a bucket of water on me."
But the real pain was not the heat or tiredness, it was his classmates teasing him with cruel names and laughing at the way he walked. However, the support of his grandfather helped him never give up.
"My grandfather used to tell me that I am no less than anyone else. I can do whatever I want, just like other children," adds Tabesh.
Today, Tabesh is 24 years old. He is married, and he spends his days protecting other children from the disease that caused him such distress.
For nearly three years, he has worked as a social mobilizer with UNICEF’s polio eradication programme, educating families about polio and the life-saving power of vaccines. It is a job that blends his personal story with his professional passion, and one he takes deeply to heart. "I don’t want any child to go through what I did," he says sadly.
In some villages, Tabesh faces challenges like families who refuse to vaccinate their children. He meets parents who fear the vaccine, who believe rumors and conspiracy theories. But he does not give up. He tells them his own story - how a simple vaccine could have saved him from a lifetime of difficulty.
"I once spent an hour with a doctor who did not want to vaccinate his children," Tabesh recalled. “I asked him, pretend I am your son. Would you want your child to grow up like me? The doctor was silent for a moment, nodded, and allowed his children to be vaccinated.”
In another village, he met a family who believed polio vaccination was a foreign conspiracy. Tabesh asked the father if he loved his children. When the man said yes, Tabesh said: "Then protect them. Do not let them grow up with regret and become like me." The next morning, the vaccinators were welcomed into their home.
Thanks to generous funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Rotary, UNICEF employs 15,000 social mobilizers like Tabesh across Afghanistan, who work tirelessly to correct misconceptions about vaccination and close the gap on missed children. Tabesh reports that in his community attitudes toward polio and vaccines are shifting; rumors and fears are being replaced by knowledge.
Outside of work, Tabesh loves playing football, but his main goal is to save children’s lives. "My dream is that we never hear of any child getting polio ever again," Tabesh smiled.
