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Polio Eradication

For more than 10 years, Lapis has been a consistent communication partner supporting the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. Working with the Gates Foundation, UNICEF, WHO, and national health partners, we have reached millions of caregivers, countered misinformation, and helped bring local health heroes to the global stage.

70+

Campaigns

25M

Afghans reached every year

The Challenge

The last mile runs on trust.

Since 1988, global collaboration has cut polio paralysis by 99.9% and immunised more than three billion children, preventing paralysis in more than 20 million people and saving an estimated 1.5 million lives.

Yet Afghanistan remains one of only two countries where polio is endemic. Funding cuts, insecurity, access gaps, and population movement continue to leave the hardest-to-reach children at risk.

After more than a decade working on digital and community engagement to eradicate polio, we see a moment of opportunity: awareness is growing, cases are falling, and vaccines are available. But the final stretch will be defined by how effectively we navigate trust, influence, and misinformation in real time.

Our Approach

Mass media Backbone

We plan and run national and sub-national campaigns across 300+ TV and radio stations, reaching audiences in all 34 provinces through the channels and formats that resonate most. This has included 80 live TV and radio programs and 82 interactive edutainment shows broadcast across 22 channels, alongside PSAs, animations, documentaries, dramas, and talk shows.

Building Capacity

Frontline workers are often the decisive interface with families — expected to overcome fear, resistance and misinformation at the door. We strengthen their work through training and communications support: the materials, messaging guidance and feedback loops that help them turn hard conversations into acceptance.

Digital and Community Engagement

The most influential decision-makers are essential, and reaching them takes sustained engagement. We work with caregivers, faith leaders, trusted elders, local authorities and women’s groups to shift norms, meeting them where they are – in person and across 21 digital channels and online community groups they already trust.

Through social media, WhatsApp and local influencers, this engagement has reached more than 10 million people with accurate information and opportunities to ask questions.

Campaigns Spotlight

PSAs

PSAs featuring trusted public figures and first-person stories make the stakes of polio tangible, showing families what protection, or its absence, can mean.

Edutainment Shows

Creative formats like this Family Feud–style game show use humor, competition, and audience participation to build knowledge and challenge misconceptions about polio.

 

Cafe Gupshup

A humorous radio drama that mobilized the Pakistani diaspora in the UAE to carry accurate polio messaging home to high-risk regions, reaching tens of thousands of daily listeners and equipping families to talk about protection.

 

Heroes of Polio Eradication (HOPE) Awards

A global recognition event in Abu Dhabi honoring frontline polio workers from Afghanistan and Pakistan, bringing local heroes onto the world stage.