What Bill Gates said about Rotary and Polio

Bill Gates statement at the 2013 Richard Dimbleby lecture.

END POLIO NOW

Bill Gates statement at the 2013 Richard Dimbleby lecture.

Below is a transcript of what Bill Gates said about Rotary when he spoke about the work that remained to rid the world of Polio in his 2013 Richard Dimbleby Lecture.

"Many organisations helped push the eradication resolution through the World Health Assembly, but the one you wouldn't expect is Rotary International. Rotary is a service organisation with 1.2 million members in almost every country in the world, including more than 50,000 in Great Britain and Ireland.

Rotarians pledge to put service above self, their motto, but they have no specific global health mandate. They are not polio experts. They are regular people who go to work and spend time with their families. For three decades, they have also spent time advocating for polio eradication, raising money to support vaccination, and giving kids polio drops all over the world.

Other partners include the Centers for Disease Control, UNICEF, and the World Health Organisation. We rely on them to excel at their jobs. But that is not enough. We also need people whose jobs have nothing to do with the health of poor people to act. That is public will."

The battle against Polio is not won yet but it is well on the way.

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