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PASSPORT FROM POLIO has been scheduled to TX on Al Jazeera English on February 3rd 2009
With the global repeat pattern, actual times in GMT are:

TUE 03 Feb 10:00, 19:00; WED 04 Feb 06:00, 14:00; THU 05 Feb 03:00

23 years ago British Music manager, photographer, pilot and polio survivor Gautam Lewis was adopted by a young dual national ( British / Irish ) volunteer worker from Mother Teresa’s orphanage in Kolkata and brought back to an affluent life in London.

‘Passport From Polio’ tells his extraordinary story and follows his emotional journey back to Kolkata to take part in India’s epic polio immunisation campaign and find out what his life would’ve been like had he stayed.

“Part of me thinks it’s brilliant that I had polio because the rest of my life wouldn’t have happened.”

Still dependent on crutches from his own battle with polio, Gautam Lewis is now an ambassador on behalf of Rotary International for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.  The battle to wipe polio from the face of the earth is the largest public health initiative the world has ever seen. If it fails, more than 10 million children will be paralyzed in the next 40 years.

Polio is a devastating disease that still exists in some parts of the world, despite an unprecedented global health campaign to get rid of it.

Children are particularly at risk and Indian-born Gautam Lewis was just one among many millions to contract the virus. Raised by Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity orphanage in Kolkata, his life might have remained one of grinding poverty – had he not been adopted at the age of seven and taken to live in privilege and comfort in Britain.

Twenty three years on, Gautam leaves his London home and returns to the country of his birth.

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Continue reading ‘Passport from Polio; Al Jazeera English; Witness with Rageh Omaar’