Queue at a health centre as parents bring their babies for vaccination

On National Vaccination Day, 15 March 1986, Mexico harnessed "children-power" to drive home the basic message that many young lives can be saved by systematic immunization in infancy.

Schoolchildren marched through the streets of cities and towns carrying banners - some printed, some home-made - proclaiming "Polio maims for life", "Vaccinate me: help me" and "Vaccinate children under five years of age".

Health personnel at all levels took the street too, making house visits and using microphones and loud-hailers to ask parents of small children whether they had been protected. No doubt the children carried the same messages home to their parents.

There was an overwhelming response. Queues formed at health centres and out-patient departments as mothers, and fathers too, brought their babies forward for life-saving inoculations and oral vaccines. Children-power can play a significant role in motivating adults and communities to take the crucial steps that will lead to better health.