Text: By Chinara Asanova and Giovanni Zambello

Three-year-old Uylus Jumabekova gently opened her mouth to let the nurse drop in some “vitamins” – it was her grandmother’s explanation to help her take her vaccine against polio.

She swallowed the not very tasty medicine, slightly knitting her brow, and then forgot the short interlude. She leapt down from the chair and ran out to tell her friends her latest story – she would study in Moscow and travel with her grandmother who would cook for her.

This scene took place in Ak Jar, one of the 21 newly-erected neighbourhoods in Bishkek, capital of the landlocked Central Asian state of Kyrgyzstan, where the local Red Crescent society was participating in the national campaign against the crippling disease.

Feature story from the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.