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Robbie on End Polio Now - Dec 1, 10 |
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Tuesday, 30 November 2010 01:23 |
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The guest-speaker this week was our own Past President, Robbie. The subject was the End Polio Now program of Rotary International, and our club's activities to support the program.
A total of $555 million is to be spent, $100 million from the Gates Foundation in 2007, a further $255 million from them announced January 2009, and $200 million being raised by Rotary (already more than $150 million has been raised)
Rotary, a volunteer service organization of 1.2 million men and women, made a commitment to immunize the world’s children against polio in 1985 and became a spearheading partner in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative three years later. The other partners are the World Health Organization, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and UNICEF. |
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Rotary’s primary responsibilities include fundraising, advocacy, and volunteer recruitment. To date, Rotary has already contributed more than $800 million to the polio eradication effort. With nearly 33,000 clubs in over 200 countries and geographical areas, Rotary reaches out to national governments worldwide to generate crucial financial and technical support for polio eradication. Since 1995, the advocacy efforts of Rotary and its partners have helped raise more than $3 billion in vital funding from donor governments.Rotary clubs also provide “sweat equity” on the ground in polio-affected communities, which helps ensure that leaders at all levels remain focused on the eradication goal. Over the years, Rotary club members have volunteered their time and personal resources to reach more than two billion children in 122 countries with the oral polio vaccine.
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| Thanks to Rotary and its partners, the number of polio cases has been slashed by more than 99 percent, preventing five million instances of childhood paralysis and 250,000 deaths. When Rotary began its eradication work, polio infected more than 350,000 children annually. In 2008, fewer than 2,000 cases were reported worldwide.But the polio cases represented by that final 1 percent will be the most difficult and expensive to prevent for a variety of reasons, including geographical isolation, worker fatigue, armed conflict, and cultural barriers. That’s why it’s so important to generate the funding needed to finish the job. To ease up now would be to invite a polio resurgence that would condemn millions of children to lifelong paralysis in the years ahead. The bottom line is this: As long as polio threatens even one child anywhere in the world, all children – wherever they live – remain at risk. |
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Robbie presented 2 videos:
- "The Last Hurdle" a short film about a polio vaccination effort in India
- Bill Gates speech, where he announced that 'The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation' would double their, and grant request Rotary to do the same. Thus 'the one million dollar challenge' becoming the 'two milion dollar challenge'.
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After the film we talked about countries where we still have wild polio, Nigeria, India, Afganistan and the fact that we had some polio cases in Indonesia in 2004.
Robbie mentioned that during Ray Klinginsmith's visit last week, Ray Klinginsmith mentioned that he and his wife were in Indonesia at the time of the polio cases. he remebered how the response from Rotary was imeediatly transferring 15 million dollar to District 3400 enabling Rotarians to set up 'crisis vaccinations' programs.
The important lesson of today was; we are Rotarians and we are committed to helping Rotary and it's partners to eradicate polio.Past President Robbie closed his talk by saying:" we can all become part of history". All of us, like we are sitting here, by working on making polio history...."
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India
Most of India is polio free. The continuing problem is in two northern states, But, the scale of the vaccination campaigns is huge. Rotary Clubs in India together with other clubs around the world are working with government agencies to tackle this. The number of cases each year is falling – so the prospects that India will become polio free within 2 or 3 years are good. |
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Pakistan
The number of cases in 2005 was 28, but this year it is already over 92. More than half of these are in the north where there is fighting which disrupts vaccination campaigns. There is also a problem with families who are against vaccination. |
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Afghanistan
Organizing vaccination campaigns in war zones is difficult, but a breakthrough achieved in 2008 was getting Taliaban support for the vaccinations. See this interesting article in the Wall Street Journal. The strategy for Afghanistan is to have more than 90% of children receiving more than 3 doses of vaccine by the end of 2012. |
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Nigeria
In 2008 there were 798 cases in Nigeria - this was halved in 2009, and is lower again in 2010. A high profile publicity campaign "Kick Polio Out of Africa" in 2010 coincided with the World Cup being played in South Africa. This should help, so the outcomes in Nigeria are encouraging, but meanwhile there is a significant outbreak in Congo.
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How far is there to go?
India could become polio free in 2 or 3 years, but the other countries may take longer. Rotary's agreement with the Gates Foundation is to raise $200 million, and so far (October 2010) $151 million has been raised. This is really good but the remaining $49 million is still a big challenge that we all need to address. |
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Guest Speakers 
