PolioPlus - Rotary International's Worldwide Campaign
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Rotary, the World Health Organization, UNICEF and the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention launched the Global Polio Eradication Initiative in 1988 to eliminate polio from the world. When completed this will be one of the most significant achievements in public health since the eradication of smallpox.
Rotary’s efforts to eradicate polio have been described as “one of the finest humanitarian projects the world has ever known” and Rotary has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Rotary clubs in Great Britain and Ireland have so far donated over £20 million to End Polio Now. |
Quote from Bill Gates
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More than 3 billion children have been reached around the world with the vaccine.
Since 2013, the Gates Foundation has matched every $1 Rotary commits to polio eradication on a two for one basis which equates to $35 (£25) million per year. Rotary, together with matching funds from the Gates Foundation, has contributed more than $1.6 billion to end polio. If you would like to help or contribute to this worthwhile effort to stamp out polio from our planet please contact the Rotary Club of Maidenhead. World Polio Day is 24th October 2019 |
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Edited article from June/July 2019 issue of Rotary (RIBI) Magazine:
There are many challenges on the last mile to eradicating polio and the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) is ramping up activities to meet those challenges.
Nigeria has had no cases of the wild polio virus since August 2016, and India has just celebrated five years of being certified polio-free. Disappointingly, in Afghanistan and Pakistan, there were more polio cases in 2018 than 2017, with 33 cases in total; and the GPEI programme has been extended through to 2023.
‘The Polio Endgame Strategy 2019-2023' was presented at the World Health Assembly in May 2018. The programme is funded through to 2019 and $3.2 billion must be raised to fund the programme to 2023.
Bill Gates said: "The success of the fight against polio and its near-eradication has been a global, collective effort between governments, civil society organisations, health workers, and activists. We must stay committed.” For Rotarians, this means going the extra mile with fund-raising, volunteering and advocacy.
Children are missing out on vaccination for various reasons including lack of infrastructure, remote locations, population movement, conflict and insecurity, resistance to vaccination, misinformation and vaccination fatigue.
In Afghanistan, Taliban leaders are hindering global efforts to end polio by preventing house to house vaccinations. Political instability and elections also play their part. Fortunately, in Pakistan the new Prime Minister, Imran Khan, is committed to eradicating polio and chaired a meeting of the National Polio Committee. In January, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization, visited Pakistan and Afghanistan and commented: “We witnessed first-hand the tremendous efforts being undertaken to interrupt the remaining chains of wild polio transmission there. “We commit to making it our overriding objective to find and reach that last unvaccinated child before the poliovirus does. We will give the poliovirus nowhere to hide.”
Rotary International President, Barry Rassin, agrees, pointing out how every Thursday morning he receives an email from the WHO with an update on polio eradication. He explained: “Every week, when that email appears in my inbox, my heart seems to stop for just a moment until I read the first few lines – and learn whether a child was paralysed by wild poliovirus that week.
The money we raise through Rotary provides essential grants to WHO and Unicef to fund technical assistance staff, vaccinators, social mobilisation; transportation – trucks, cars, bikes, boats and donkeys, and communication tools – radio and bill board advertising, leaflets, caps, tabards, purple pens.
We distribute $150 million a year in grants, including $50 million raised by Rotary and the $100 million match from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
We can’t lose sight of the goal, we must remain focused and honour Rotary’s promise to the children of the world.
There are many challenges on the last mile to eradicating polio and the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) is ramping up activities to meet those challenges.
Nigeria has had no cases of the wild polio virus since August 2016, and India has just celebrated five years of being certified polio-free. Disappointingly, in Afghanistan and Pakistan, there were more polio cases in 2018 than 2017, with 33 cases in total; and the GPEI programme has been extended through to 2023.
‘The Polio Endgame Strategy 2019-2023' was presented at the World Health Assembly in May 2018. The programme is funded through to 2019 and $3.2 billion must be raised to fund the programme to 2023.
Bill Gates said: "The success of the fight against polio and its near-eradication has been a global, collective effort between governments, civil society organisations, health workers, and activists. We must stay committed.” For Rotarians, this means going the extra mile with fund-raising, volunteering and advocacy.
Children are missing out on vaccination for various reasons including lack of infrastructure, remote locations, population movement, conflict and insecurity, resistance to vaccination, misinformation and vaccination fatigue.
In Afghanistan, Taliban leaders are hindering global efforts to end polio by preventing house to house vaccinations. Political instability and elections also play their part. Fortunately, in Pakistan the new Prime Minister, Imran Khan, is committed to eradicating polio and chaired a meeting of the National Polio Committee. In January, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization, visited Pakistan and Afghanistan and commented: “We witnessed first-hand the tremendous efforts being undertaken to interrupt the remaining chains of wild polio transmission there. “We commit to making it our overriding objective to find and reach that last unvaccinated child before the poliovirus does. We will give the poliovirus nowhere to hide.”
Rotary International President, Barry Rassin, agrees, pointing out how every Thursday morning he receives an email from the WHO with an update on polio eradication. He explained: “Every week, when that email appears in my inbox, my heart seems to stop for just a moment until I read the first few lines – and learn whether a child was paralysed by wild poliovirus that week.
The money we raise through Rotary provides essential grants to WHO and Unicef to fund technical assistance staff, vaccinators, social mobilisation; transportation – trucks, cars, bikes, boats and donkeys, and communication tools – radio and bill board advertising, leaflets, caps, tabards, purple pens.
We distribute $150 million a year in grants, including $50 million raised by Rotary and the $100 million match from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
We can’t lose sight of the goal, we must remain focused and honour Rotary’s promise to the children of the world.
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Tayyaba Gul, from Islamabad (Metropolitan) Rotary in Pakistan, runs a Rotary-funded health centre in Nowshera, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where her team of female vaccinators aim to close the cultural gap that pushes up refusal rates.
The group works in neighbourhoods within tribal border regions among ethnic Afghan refugees. Its aim is to convince mothers that polio immunisations are a normal part of postnatal care. “I just contribute my part as a Rotarian. I’m happy to work in remote areas, especially with women, motivating them to play their role in society,” Gul says. |
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