I n
a video message to Rotarians, Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill &
Melinda
Gates Foundation, thanked Rotarians for their hard work in the effort to
eradicate polio and congratulated Rotary for surpassing the halfway
point in
meeting Rotary's US$200 Million Challenge.
"The
work you're doing to raise funds for the program is critical, especially
given
the tight government budgets and increasing costs for a very aggressive
polio
program," Gates said. "Your work as advocates is also very important.
We need to keep this fight high on the world's list of priorities."
Rotary
has been a leader in the fight against polio since the launch of the
PolioPlus
program in 1985. Recently, the Gates Foundation awarded two grants
totaling
$355 million to Rotary in support of its work in eradicating the
disease. In
response, Rotary pledged to raise $200 million. To date, Rotary has
raised
$174 million.
Polio
Poliomyelitis (polio) is a crippling
and potentially fatal disease
that still threatens children in parts of Africa, Asia and the Middle
East. The
polio virus invades the nervous system, and can cause total paralysis in a
matter of hours. It can strike at any age, but mainly affects children
under
five years of age.
Polio Plus
In 1985, Rotary International created
Polio Plus a program to
immunize all the worlds children against polio.
To
date, Rotary has contributed more than US$800 million and countless
volunteer
hours to the protection of more than two billion children in 122
countries.
Rotary is currently working to raise an additional US$200 million toward
a
US$355 million challenge grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation.
These efforts are providing much needed polio vaccine, operational
support,
medical personnel, laboratory equipment and educational materials for
health
workers and parents. In addition, Rotary has played a major role in
decisions
by donor governments to contribute over $4 billion to the effort.
Polio Today
Today, endemic wild polio virus has
been eliminated from all but
four countries in the world (Afghanistan,India, Nigeria and Pakistan),
and less
than 2000 cases were reported worldwide in 2008. Though great progress
has been
made, challenges remain. Overall, the quality of immunization campaigns
must be
improved, and more funding is critically needed. In response,
governments,
donors and international agencies have endorsed a plan with clear
milestones to
tackle these and other challenges to a polio-free world.
Global Polio Eradication Initiative
With its community-based network
worldwide, Rotary is the
volunteer arm and top private sector contributor to a global partnership
dedicated to eradicating polio. Since its launch in 1988, the Global
Polio
Eradication Initiative - spearheaded by the World Health Organization
(WHO),
Rotary International, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC)
and UNICEF - has reduced the incidence of polio by more than 99 percent.
At the
time, more than 125 countries were polio-endemic, and more than 350,000
children were paralised by the disease each year.
Rotarians in Action
Besides raising funds, over one million men and
women of Rotary
have donated their time and personal resources to help immunize nearly
two
billion children during mass immunization campaigns throughout the
world.
Rotarians prepare and distribute different types of mass communication
tools to
get the message to people cut off from the mainstream by conflict,
geography or
poverty. Rotarians also recruit fellow volunteers, assist with
transporting the
vaccine, administer the vaccine to children and provide other logistical
support.
For more information, Rotary International
