Rotary’s Support to Eradicate Polio

Baldock Rotary is probably best known for sponsoring events such as the Christmas lights in the town, Father Christmas and the sleigh, Open Gardens and the Jazz Concert. Rotary is less well known for its support of international projects. One project received acclaim in the Houses of Parliament when an MP said that “Rotary had made a ‘monumental contribution’ to global efforts to eradicate polio”. The reason for this praise being that Rotary members, volunteers and supporters across the world have raised over $2 billion in the global fight to eradicate the disease by helping to immunise and protect over 2.5 billion children around the world. What is polio?…it is a disabling and life-threatening disease which spreads from person to person and can infect a person’s spinal cord causing paralysis and often immobilizes a patient’s breathing muscles. It is contracted predominantly by children. In 1985, the number of paralytic cases exceeeded 350,000 each year and the disease was prevalent in 125 countries. In 1988 Rotary joined the “Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI)” which was founded to fight the virus’s spread with a global vaccination campaign. By 2017 the virus was in circulation in only Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan and since then Africa has been declared free of the ‘wild polio’ strain. There are similarities between Covid-19 and polio and the work that Rotary has achieved in fighting polio has helped countries to better deal with their cases of Covid-19. Your support in the fundraising activities of Baldock Rotary is gratefully appreciated and when these efforts result in saving lives, particularly the lives of children, all of our combined efforts become so worthwhile. For more information about Rotary and the ‘End Polio Now’ programme please visit www.endpolio.org

Rotarian - Paul Luckett www.baldockrotary.co.uk Rotary in Baldock