Healthy children are better able to learn in schools. RugMark is helping to reduce a devastating virus by offering its schools as locations for immunization clinics.

RugMark has joined India’s commitment to achieve polio-free status by 2007, a key campaign led by Health Minister Ramadoss along with the World Health Organization. India is one of the six countries where the polio virus still afflicts children.

“Polio is a disease that affects the poor and the poorest regions,” says Sharda Subramaniam, director of RugMark Foundation India. Out of 136 polio cases reported last year, 123 were in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, the heart of India’s carpet industry.

RugMark’s six schools and Balashrya, the boarding school, serve as headquarters for the campaign to immunize all children under the age of five. Rugmark headmasters and teachers help medical officers immunize more than 2,000 children during each drive. To make sure that no children are left out, teams make house-to-house visits.