Thanks for Life - Thanks to Rotary - End Polio Now

Rotary’s enduring goal for the past twenty years has been the eradication of Polio. For those of us in “Western” countries, polio has long been little more than a vaccination which everyone has, but it isn’t that long ago that the sight of children (and adults in later life) crippled by polio was common. I was reminded of this by a “friend” who dug out some old school pictures from my youth (thanks Alan!). For those who want a good laugh at my expense click here, or here, or even here. In a couple of the pictures there’s a guy who had a withered arm and leg (not that it’s obvious) – as a result of Polio. In the late 70’s I worked alongside another guy a little younger than me who wore a heavy caliper on his leg – as a result of Polio as a child. These sights are now thankfully rare here.

Polio is now endemic in only four countries, Nigeria, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan – largely as a result of the outstanding efforts of Rotary International (in conjunction with the World Health Organisation, UNICEF and the Centre for Disease Control). In the last twenty years, Rotarians have contributed more than $800 million towards the eradication of polio and moreover have given their time to give firsthand help to the teams immunising children in remote areas. In a couple of those countries where polio is still endemic there are big practical issues in getting the message (and the vaccine) delivered safely. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out that immunising children (or even getting acceptance to do so) in the tribal areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan is a challenging and dangerous exercise – to say the least! The other problem, of course, is that diseases don’t recognise land borders, so that even though many countries are no longer endemic, cases do occur as the disease (and carriers) cross boundaries to neighbouring countries, particularly those surrounding Nigeria.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have seen for themselves the importance of completing the task of eradicating polio. Over the last 2 years they’ve committed into our care $355 million of their money, if Rotary raises $200 million. In a little over a year we reached $100 million of the target (October 2009). To see more of the work of Rotary in this area watch this short video on YouTube. For what Bill Gates had to say to Rotary in January 2009, click here.

Help us to end polio – send a donation, or better still, come and join us and help us on an on-going basis. Send me a mail to find out more. You can make a donation of £5 easily by texting POLIO to 82010 (UK only).

The Rotary Club of Elthorne Hillingdon will be running a dedicated event in February 2010, during “Thanks for Life” week (a Rotary in Britain & Ireland event), celebrating the work of Rotary in the effort to eradicate polio and pushing us further down the path of meeting our $200 million challenge. I’ll be posting details of this nearer the time.