Archie Panjabi Helps Stamp Out Polio
British-born actress Archie Panjabi, best known to millions of TV viewers as the sultry, enigmatic investigator Kalinda Sharma on the CBS series “The Good Wife,” has teamed up with the humanitarian organization Rotary International to protect children everywhere by eradicating the crippling disease of polio.
Her involvement extends beyond simply lending her name and celebrity to a cause — she has witnessed the devastation caused by polio.
“I grew up in London and at the age of 10, I moved to Mumbai for 2 years,” Panjabi said in a statement May 21. “One of the things that struck me on my daily walk to school was seeing polio survivors crawling on the streets using just their hands.”
There is no cure for polio, but the disease is vaccine-preventable. In March, the Emmy Award-winner took to the streets of New Delhi with a team of Rotary volunteers to immunize children with the oral polio vaccine and visit with young polio patients at a local hospital. She says it was a life-changing experience. “I myself placed drops of vaccine into a child’s mouth, and I was so moved … knowing that this child was now safe from this devastating disease forever,” she said.
On April 24-25, Panjabi also served as program emcee for the Global Vaccine Summit in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, where she spent time as a child. The Summit was co-hosted by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon; Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; and Abu Dhabi's Crown Prince, His Highness General Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.
Polio today remains endemic in only three countries: Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan. India, once expected to be the last country to beat polio, was removed from the endemic list in 2012 and will be declared polio-free if it reaches January 2014 with no new cases. This makes Panjabi particularly proud.
“Seeing India become polio-free is tremendous, and I am committed to making sure that no other child anywhere suffers from polio again,” said Panjabi.
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