5 Million people destined to be POLIO VICTIMS are today walking and enjoying a better life because of Global Awareness!
From the launch of the global polio eradication initiative in 1988 to its projected completion in 2005, five million people who would otherwise have been paralyzed will be walking — thanks to their immunization against polio. Although the forefront of the initiative’s success is in the developing world, the poliovirus travels — it knows no borders. Even recently, it has been imported into nonendemic areas of Africa, Europe, and Asia.
Since 1985, Rotary International’s PolioPlus program has contributed greatly to the protection of more than two billion children from the dreaded disease of polio. Rotary International’s goal is the certification of polio eradication. Polio eradication means the interruption of the transmission of the wild poliovirus.With its vast volunteer network of 1.2 million members in more than 165 countries, Rotary is the key private sector partner in the war against polio, penetrating nearly every polio-endemic and high-risk country to immunize the world’s children.
Rotarian contributions support transporting the vaccine and health workers to immunization posts and initiating dynamic public education programs to motivate parents to vaccinate their children. By the time the world is certified polio-free, Rotary’s contributions to the global polio eradication effort will reach nearly US$600 million.
Polio-endemic countries once provided about 80 percent of the resources needed for eradication. But the last strongholds of the disease remain in the world’s poorest countries, which require much greater levels of outside support. Rotarians are working to inform global, national, and local leaders about the benefits of polio eradication so that financial, technical, and other resources required to reach this goal will be committed on a timely basis.
Polio can be defeated
To learn how you or your organization can help, please contact:
The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International
One Rotary Center, 1560 Sherman Avenue
Evanston, IL 60201-3698 USA
For more information see: Rotary International