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Rotary's End Polio Now Campaign
 After 20 years of hard work, Rotary and its partners (World Health Organisation & UNICF) are on the brink of eradicating Polio, a tenacious disease. Over 2 billion children have been vaccinated against this debilitating disease worldwide by Rotary. However a strong push is needed now to root it out once and for all.
Having reduced the number of children infected by Polio annually from the 350,000 figure across 125 countries in 1988 at the start of the campaign, to the 483 cases in 2001 with polio being restricted to four remaining countries, namely India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria, the number resurged to 1,606 in 2009 across 23 countries, all in Africa and the Indian Subcontinent.
But progress in 2009-2010 has been extremely encouraging. In June 2010 it was reported that no incidents of polio were identified in India in the first 6 months of the year. In Nigeria the drop in cases has been 99%. We have made a difference and the final push is all that is required.
There remains a window of historic proportions only seen once before with the eradication of Smallpox.
It is estimated by the World Health Authority that, in the absence of the eradication of polio, 4 million children will get affected by this crippling disease in the next 20 years. $5,000 will purchase the vaccines to protect 10,000 children.
Your contribution will help Rotary raise $200 million to match the $355 million in challenge grants received from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation by mid-2012. The resulting $555 million will directly support immunisation campaigns in developing countries, where polio continues to infect and paralyse children, robbing them of their futures and compounding the hardships faced by their families.
Rotary International's most high profile and long running programme, supported by Rotary Club Malta through its contributions to Rotary International, is the End Polio Now campaign.
This campaign has as its objective the worldwide eradication of Polio and has been running since 1984 resulting in the drastic reduction in the incidence of Polio following the vaccination of over 2 billion children worldwide. While in 1988, polio infected nearly 1,000 children every day, in 2008, fewer than 2,000 cases were reported for the entire year.
Polio is now largely restricted to 4 countries, namely India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria and a final push towards its eradication is underway by Rotary and its partners. Foremost of these partners has been the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation which on the 21st January 2009 announced a further challenge grant to Rotary International of US$255 over and above the US$100 million already donated. This challenge grant requires that Rotary International now has to raise US$200 by mid-2012 to meet its targets.
As long as polio threatens even one child anywhere in the world, children everywhere remain at risk. The stakes are that high. By donating now, you can help Rotary achieve a polio-free world.
Bill Gates speaks at the Rotary International Assembly in San Diego on 21 January 2009 to announce an increase in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundations' challenge grant for polio eradication to Rotary Foundation.
Read article in Canada's The Globe and Mail - Wiping out Polio - We can and must
Rotary's Involvement with Polio Eradication
The US$555 million funding agreement between Rotary and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation marks another milestone in Rotary’s 20-year legacy of polio eradication work.
Rotary made a commitment to immunise the world’s children against polio in 1985 and became a spearheading partner in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative three years later. The other partners are the World Health Organization, the U.S. Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, and UNICEF.
Rotary’s primary responsibilities include fund raising, advocacy, and volunteer recruitment. To date, Rotary has already contributed more than $800 million to the polio eradication effort.
With nearly 33,000 clubs in over 200 countries and geographical areas, Rotary reaches out to national governments worldwide to generate crucial financial and technical support for polio eradication. Since 1995, the advocacy efforts of Rotary and its partners have helped raise more than $3 billion in vital funding from donor governments.
Rotary clubs also provide “sweat equity” on the ground in polio-affected communities, which helps ensure that leaders at all levels remain focused on the eradication goal. Over the years, Rotary club members have volunteered their time and personal resources to reach more than two billion children in 122 countries with the oral polio vaccine.
Thanks to Rotary and its partners, the number of polio cases has been slashed by more than 99 percent, preventing five million instances of childhood paralysis and 250,000 deaths. When Rotary began its eradication work, polio infected more than 350,000 children annually. In 2008, fewer than 2,000 cases were reported worldwide.
But the polio cases represented by that final 1 percent will be the most difficult and expensive to prevent for a variety of reasons, including geographical isolation, worker fatigue, armed conflict, and cultural barriers.
That’s why it’s so important to generate the funding needed to finish the job. To ease up now would be to invite a polio resurgence that would condemn millions of children to lifelong paralysis in the years ahead.
The bottom line is this: As long as polio threatens even one child anywhere in the world, all children – wherever they live – remain at risk. |
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