Thursday 24th October 2019 is World Polio Day

For over 30 years Rotary International has been working hard to rid the world of polio. When the campaign started in 1985 there were 125 endemic countries - now there are only THREE: Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria. Polio cases across the world have reduced by 99.9% from over 350,000 cases in 1985 to just 33 new infections in 2018. Over 2.5 billion children have been immunised in this time.

The Rotary clubs of Yeovil and Yeo Vale have been raising awareness of this commitment by illuminating the ouside of of Yeovil's parish church, St John's, with purple lighting to highlight the Rotary project which is called "Purple 4 Polio" (because when children are immunised they get a finger painted purple to signify completion)..

The church held their weekly coffee morning on Thursday 24th October and Rotarians from both clubs were there to promote the campaign.