Rotary PolioPlus
PolioPlus
A Rotary Worldwide Effort
In 1985, 350,000 children annually became afflicted with polio in 125 countries. Today, there are only four endemic countries...the lowest in history: Afganistan, India, Nigeria, and Pakistan. In 2007. fewer than 2000 cases were reported worldwide. It is estimated that Rotarian efforts todate have spared an estimated 5 million children from a lifetime of paralysis.
Since 1985, Rotarians have worked hard and contributed nearly $800 million to stop polio around the world. Rotary and its partners are on the brink of eradicating this tenacious disease. A stong push is needed now to root it out once and for all. It is a window of opportunity of historic proportions. If not stamped out totally, it can come back, and come back with a vengeance. To do so, Bill Gates announced at the RI National Assembly in San Diego, January 21, 2009, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation would contribute an additional $255 million grant to be added to their current $100 million grant, with $200 million matching dollars from Rotarians.
With this contribution, the eradication of polio around the world will no longer be a dream but a reality.
Rotary, a volunteer service organization of 1.2 million men and women, made a commitment to immunize 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. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and UNICEF.
Rotary's primary responsibilities include fundraising, advocacy, and volunteer recruitment. To date, Rotary has contributed nearly $800 million to the eradication effort, before the Bill and Melinda Gates Grant that totals $350 million and Rotary's matching grant ot $200 million.
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 2007, 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.
Pakistan's Prime Minister Reaffirms Support for Ending Polio (Rotary World)
"We all have to play our full role to turn the dream of a polio free Pakistan into reality, declared Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani on the first day of his country's August 2008 National Immunization Days. Gilani launched the NIDs by administering drops of polio vaccine to a child in Islamabad. In June 2008, The Rotary Foundation awarded $5.9 million to the World Health Organization and to UNICEF for social mobilization activities and operational support in Pakistan to end polio.
PhRMA Contributes to Polio Eradication Efforts (Rotary World)
To help support Rotary's goal of eradicating polio world wide, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, known as PhRMA, donated $100,000 to The Rotary Foundation in August, 2008. The gift went toward Rotary's $100 mill matching grant challenge.
Nichole Asquith
