Gafo, Papua New Guinea

"They told me he had polio. He couldn’t walk.

I carried him like a baby, he couldn’t sit, stand or even eat. We stayed like that for 5 or 6 months.

The family was scared of us, they wouldn’t come into our area. We stayed on our own. I had these suicidal thoughts because I couldn’t bear to see him with a disability, because that’s not the child I gave birth to.

We were going to the hospital for physical therapy every Wednesday. There they taught me what to do, to boil hot water every morning and afternoon and massage his legs.

His legs and arms were starting to move, getting stronger.

We hardly had any sleep at night, we’d just stay up and help him exercise until he started to crawl around by himself.

So I continued to have faith and pray that he would recover. We continued the exercises until he stood up. He walked on his own. I yelled out, 'Thank you!' and I just started crying.

I’m Gafo’s mother, and I want to tell the world that every child must get vaccinated against polio. Gafo didn’t get vaccinated and that’s how got this disease."