Rotary 'END POLIO NOW'
Rotary Clubs worldwide are spear-heading the drive to eliminate polio, which is more urgent than ever
Our club has been awarded a Certificate of Appreciation by The Rotary Foundation, Rotary's charity arm, in recognition of our financial support for End Polio Now. Rotary has been working to eradicate polio for more than 35 years. Our goal of ridding the world of this disease was closer than ever in 2023 but has fallen back since then.
As a founding partner of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, Rotary has reduced polio cases by 99.9 percent since the first project to vaccinate children in the Philippines in 1979.
Rotary members have contributed more than $2.1 billion and countless volunteer hours to protect nearly 3 billion children in 122 countries from this paralysing disease. Rotary’s advocacy efforts have played a role in decisions by governments to contribute more than $10 billion to the effort. The Gates Foundation has matched Rotary funds 2:1, tripling the amount raised.
Other crucial health projects have run alongside the immunisation effort. These include improvements to maternal and child health and support for those who have been paralysed in the past, enabling many of them to return to education or employment.
By 2023, polio remained endemic only in two small areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan, with only 6 cases in each. Since the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban in 2021 and the Covid pandemic, it has become much more difficult to achieve population-wide immunisation and the number of wild polio cases in those two countries has increased to 25 and 73 in 2024. Continuing the campaign is more important than ever as there is a serious risk of polio spreading back to countries that have been free of it - at least one child in Gaza has been paralysed.
But even after no cases are recorded it’s crucial to continue immunising for at least another three years to keep the world polio-free. If all eradication efforts stopped today, within 10 years, polio could paralyse as many as 200,000 children each year.
Rotary 'END POLIO NOW' sub-pages:
Rotary 'End Polio Now' supported by Salvation Army Band Concert
more On 6 April 2019 a large audience enjoyed a varied concert by The Salvation Army Band with guest Soloist Gemma Hinchcliffe and added entertainment by Rotarian Major Mott as compere.