My name is Gopamma. My friends call me Gopi. Now, when you see me I may seem like any other normal girl my age, that I have crutches. But less than a year ago, I was walking on fours, dragging my eight-year-old body a sack of potatoes.

When I was two, I got sick with polio. I was ill for a long time, and my parents feared I wouldn’t . I did-but I couldn’t walk any more.
My parents were very poor. They didn’t have enough money. All their savings had spent on my treatment. There was nothing they could do to help me. Relatives often wondered what happen to me. “Who would marry her?”, they asked.

I felt very bad. I couldn’t go to school, I couldn’t play like all other kids. Children ignored me, or often fun of me. I would sit by the side of the road and watch them play. I had friends.
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Then a happened. of a voluntary organization came to our village, looking for children who needed medical help. They found me. Soon they took me to a hospital doctors did corrective on me. Later I had operation, Soon, I was able to walk with the of two wooden crutches. I was excited to be to walk.

Doctors told my parents that if I been given a polio vaccine in time, I would have spared the pain. Just imagine, vaccines cost less than a bottle of soda water! When my mother learned about it, she took my three-year-old sister to vaccinated. I was glad that she wouldn’t to go through the same suffering and sadness I went through.

Now I go to school. My elder brother, who is 10, takes me there every day, me on his back. Other kids often joke about me, they are friendly jokes. I know my friends mean harm. I hope one day I shall up to be a teacher. Then, I shall tell everybody how important it is to children polio vaccinations.