Market collect to end Polio
Rotary International’s ‘End Polio Now’ campaign was a focus at Saturday’s Rotary Market in Drouin, with $100.95 collected for this international project as part of ‘End Polio Month’.
A Soup Saver Dinner was held for Drouin members on World Polio Day recently.
In 1985, Rotary launched its ‘Polio Plus’ program, the first initiative to tackle global polio eradication through the mass vaccination of children. And in 1988 the ‘Global Polio Eradication Initiative’ was established with Rotary and key supporters including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Today, there are only three countries that have never stopped transmission of the wild poliovirus: Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan.
Just 37 polio cases were confirmed worldwide in 2016, which is a reduction of more than 99.9 percent since the 1980s, when the world saw about 1000 cases per day. Eleven cases have been reported this year.
Rotary will raise $50 million per year over the next three years, with every dollar to be matched with two additional dollars from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
These funds help to provide much-needed operational support, medical personnel, laboratory equipment, and educational materials for health workers and parents.
For more information and how you can contribute, visit the website www.endpolio.org or polioeradication.org or, speak to a member of your local Rotary Club.