ISIDORA CIRIC (ABU DHABI)

For many, polio exists only in history books or in the faded memories of older generations. But for those who have lived with its consequences, the global campaign to eradicate polio is neither abstract nor finished. It is measured in daily realities and in the difference a vaccine, or its absence, can make.

When world leaders pledged nearly $2 billion for polio on December 8 in Abu Dhabi, Ramesh Ferris, a polio survivor and advocate from Canada, felt “the world less lonely”. In a room full of applause, he heard a signal he had wanted for years: the job is not done, and people are still prepared to carry it over the line.

“It’s amazing to be here in Abu Dhabi for this historic moment, where $1.9 billion was pledged today for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI). And as a polio survivor, that touches my heart. We truly are on the cusp of eradicating the second disease in human history [after small pox],” Ferris said in an interview with Aletihad, moments after the pledge was announced.

“I have to say that the world feels less lonely when you know that so many world leaders from around the world, different countries, are coming together collectively as a global community – all for a polio-free world.”

The Importance of a Single Vaccine Dose

Ferris was in the room not as a guest, but as someone whose life was altered by a missed dose. Born in Tamil Nadu, India, he contracted polio as a baby, 25 years after Jonas Salk’s vaccine had made the disease preventable in much of the world.

“The reason why I contracted polio is because I was living in poverty in India, and the polio vaccine wasn’t available to poor people in India. My birth mother didn’t even know the polio vaccine existed, nor did I have the opportunity to receive it,” Ferris recalled.

The virus left his legs paralysed for life, and his mother – lacking the means to care for him – placed him in a Canadian-founded orphanage, Families for Children. Later adopted into a family in Yukon, Ferris gained access to corrective surgeries and rehabilitative support that allowed him to stand and walk.

In 2002, he went back to India to meet his birth mother Lakshmi and visit the orphanage that had cared for him. On that trip, at only 22 years of age, Ferris began to understand what his life could have looked like without adoption or access to care.

“If I were in India, I learned that I would have been a crawler on the street,” he said, recounting a story of seeing a fellow polio survivor crawling on the streets of Coimbatore, using cut-up pieces of tyres to protect his knees and sandals on his hands.

“I said, what am I looking at? And someone that was with me said, ‘You’re looking at your life if you weren’t adopted’. It’s not okay that we have fellow human beings crawling on the dirty streets of their community because they didn’t have equitable access to vaccines.”
It was this moment when Ferris decided that “being a bystander is not an option”.

In 2008, he hand-cycled across Canada, more than 7,000 kilometres, raising awareness and funds for polio eradication, education, and rehabilitation. He’s also become a vocal member of Rotary International, speaking to communities where polio feels like a distant memory, sharing the perspective of survivors, and joining vaccination drives to ensure children in India and abroad can access the same two vaccine drops that would have spared him paralysis.

Almost Ending Polio Isn’t Enough

When Ferris wears trousers, strangers assume a war injury, cancer, or a car crash. Polio is not the first explanation in countries where vaccination succeeded.

“When you talk about polio in the country where I live now, Canada, the US, or other countries, polio is like a done deal to many of them. They do not think about polio. Polio is so far removed,” he explained.

That disconnect between perception and reality is exactly why he believes moments like Abu Dhabi matter – they give survivors a much-needed space in decision-making and public messaging. They cut through complacency.

They show that leaders are still racing the virus, not the other way around.

“As a polio survivor, I am so touched and moved by the incredible support from the UAE today – they pledged $140 million of new funding to the GPEI, [bringing the total UAE donations] to $525 million since 2011. That is an incredible, incredible donation,” Ferris said.

“The UAE stepped up and showed the support to the world, showed that they’re in it to end polio once and for all.

That’s what we need – continued support for the GPEI. That’s truly what’s going to get us over the ‘end polio’ finish line – when countries step up and commit,” he added.

The number itself matters less to Ferris than what follows it, which is why he cautions that the global community must “cross the finish line, not almost end polio”. As he explains, pledges only change lives if they reach children, train workers, and keep communities engaged until transmission stops.

“We need people of all abilities everywhere to be raising their voices to say that vaccines work, that people everywhere need to vaccinate their kids at home and abroad, and that every child everywhere deserves equitable access to the polio vaccine,” he said.

“Every child, no matter where they live, has the right and deserves to live and thrive wherever they are.”