Crocus Planting

The Rotary clubs in the Bailiwick of Guernsey are delighted to have the support of His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor Vice Admiral Sir Ian Corder and Lady Corder in planting over 160,000 purple crocus corms across the Bailiwick this Autumn.  On World Polio Day on Tuesday 24^th October Sir Ian and Lady Corder will be helping volunteers from Rotary, Floral Guernsey, Appleby (Guernsey) LLP, Paulo’s Gardening Services along with a team from Grow Limited (who are part of the Guernsey Disability Alliance) and the gardeners at Government House to plant 25,000 purple crocus corms in the grounds of Government House. 

Rotary is grateful to Appleby (Guernsey) LLP for their financial and gardening support in making this all happen and to Paulo’s Gardening Services who will be with us on 24^th October with their magic corm planting machine. 

Also at 12 noon on World Polio Day local Rotarians Jannine & Paul Birtwistle will be joining the mass planting of 50,000 crocus corms in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, part of 5 million being planted by Rotary across Great Britain and Ireland to add to the 7 million planted last year.  As a direct result of an original partnership between the local Rotary clubs and Floral Guernsey, a nationwide partnership between Rotary and the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) followed in the UK promoting the planting of this massive amount of corms by Rotary clubs, local communities and RHS Bloom groups.

World Polio Day will see celebrations across the globe highlighting the success so far in the fight to rid the world of the crippling and life threatening virus called polio. 

Never heard of polio? Count yourself lucky. It was eradicated from Guernsey in 1959  and in over 3 decades since the late 1980s most of the world has become polio free.  Sadly very small pockets remain causing limb paralysis and threatening the lives of young children both in these countries and globally. When Rotary first started this campaign in 1985 over 1,000 children every single day were impacted by the polio virus.  Through Rotary’s intervention with an intensive vaccination programme, which started in the 1980s and is backed by WHO, US Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, UNICEF and more recently the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, millions of children’s lives have been spared from this crippling disease.  If the disease is not stamped out everywhere there is the very real danger that it will rapidly return and affect more than 200,000 children again every single year.

The 3 Rotary clubs in the Bailiwick are proud to be part of this Purple4Polio campaign to End Polio Now and forever. The campaign is so-called because purple is the colour of the dye placed on the little finger on the left hand of a child to show they have been immunised against polio during mass immunization days when every single child under 5yrs old in an entire country will receive their life saving polio drops.

Date for your diary – Friday 2^nd March 2018 Purple Pinkie Day – when we will be asking the local community to show their support for the Rotary End Polio Now campaign by using their imaginations to have purple fun (Dress down, purple cake sales, purple hair…..)

ROTARY’S END POLIO NOW CAMPAIGN

Since Rotary and its partners launched the Global Polio Eradication Initiative nearly 30 years ago, the incidence of polio has plummeted by more than 99.99 percent, from about 350,000 cases a year in 125 countries to just 37 cases in three remaining polio-endemic countries, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria, in 2016 and just 12 cases of wild poliovirus in 2017, five cases in Pakistan and seven in Afghanistan.  

To sustain this progress and protect all children from polio, Rotary has committed to raising US$50 million per year over the next three years in support of global polio eradication efforts. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will match Rotary’s commitment 2:1. Without full funding and political commitment, this paralysing disease could return to previously polio-free countries, putting children everywhere at risk. Rotary has contributed more than US$1.7 billion to ending polio since 1985.

At the Rotary International Convention in Atlanta in June, world governments and other organisations joined Rotary and Bill Gates in pledging new money totalling $1.2 billion, towards filling the $1.5 billion gap in the funding that the Global Polio Eradication Initiative estimates is needed to achieve eradication. The British Government pledged £100 million toward the fight to eradicate polio in August and here in Guernsey the Guernsey Overseas Aid and Development Commission pledged £40,000 on a matching basis with the Rotary clubs of Alderney, Guernesiais and Guernsey.