Yearsley Grove School in Huntington, York

Yearsley Grove pupils shown planting purple crocus bulbs.

Cash given by Yearsley Grove primary school pupils, as part of their support for the Rotary York Ainsty Polio Eradication project should ensure that more than 3,000 children will have a future free of the crippling disease – poliomyelitis.

The young pupils planted special purple crocus bulbs in the school grounds in October. Now, they have collected and donated £220 to the initiative.

The donation will ensure that more than 3,000 children will get the life-saving vaccination. Microsoft founder and polio campaign supporter Bill Gates has promised to triple any cash raised by Rotary clubs from his own charity – the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Each inoculation droplet costs about 20p to buy. Many of the inoculators are volunteer Rotarians.

Thousands of bulbs were planted by many city school children, including Yearsley Grove, in October. Purple represents the colour used to mark children’s little fingers to signify that they have been inoculated, thus leading to the project’s motto – Purple4Polio. Rotary sells the bulbs to raise much-needed funds for the world-wide project.

Polio is a serious viral infection that used to be common in the UK and world-wide. Three countries are still endemic: Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria.

Rotary took up the challenge to eradicate polio from the world’s children in 1985, when new cases numbered more than 1,000 a day. This has reduced to only 21 new cases notified in the past 12 months. World-wide, Rotary clubs have contributed more than £1.3 billion to end polio since the project started.

Rotary and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation renewed their long-standing support for ending polio, together with the WHO and other charities.

Rotary is committed to raise $50 million per year over the next three years, with every dollar to be matched with two additional dollars from the Gates Foundation.

This expanded agreement will translate into $450 million for polio eradication activities, including immunisation and surveillance over the next three years. Polio eradication is just one of the causes to which Rotary York Ainsty is committed. The club has many other active projects helping people in the local community and internationally. The public are invited to join… working with fellow members they may well be inspired to start a new own charitable project using the resources and contacts available within Rotary.