Polio Plus

Poliomyelitis our $100 million Challenge
Poliomyelitis, often called polio or infantile paralysis, is an acute infectious disease spread from person to person, Poliomyelitis is one of the most dreaded childhood diseases of the 20th century. Around the world Polio epidemics have crippled and killed thousands of people, mostly young children. Polio causes paralysis and leads to muscle weakness that mostly involves the legs and lungs’ breathing then becomes impossible and you eventually die for the sake of a vaccine that only costs 60 cents per dose.
Only a few years ago did West Australia’s last patient Polio sufferer die she lived for years in an iron lung at Shenton Park hospital.

To date, Rotary has contributed nearly $650 million to the eradication effort; this amount that will grow to more than $850 million by the time the world is certified polio-free. Polio remains endemic in only four countries - Nigeria, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, with only 1313 new cases reported worldwide in 2007. To make this difference thousands of Rotarians around the world volunteer their time and money during National Immunization days your climbing with sponsorship will help them finish the job.

You can play your part by climbing and obtaining sponsorship to assist Rotary International to meet The “Bill Gates Challenge” Bill and Melinda Gates has said if Rotary raises $100 million in three years their foundation will match it dollar for dollar enough to finish the job.

Brief History of Polio Plus
In the early 1980s, Rotary began planning for the most ambitious immunization program in its history — to immunize all of world's children against polio. With the help advice of Dr. Albert Sabin, developer of the oral polio vaccine, Rotary established its Polio Plus program in 1985.

Rotary began program with a pledge to raise US$120 million to fund the Polio Plus program this was announced in October 1985 at the 40th anniversary of the United Nations.

Within three years, Rotarians had more than doubled their fundraising goal, donating US$247million. Rotary’s leadership inspired the World Health Assembly to pass a resolution to eradicate polio, When Polio Plus was launched, wild poliovirus was endemic in more than 125 countries on five continents, paralyzing in human terms 1000 children every day.

Rotary's involvement in polio eradication began with a five-year commitment to provide and help deliver polio vaccine to six million children in the Philippines

In the next four years, similar five-year commitments were approved for Haiti, Bolivia, Morocco, Sierra Leone, and Cambodia Later in India and China Rotary inoculated 180 million children in one day.

Just think about it Contribute to stopping polio and at the same time Contribute to Rotary's $100 Million Challenge.

What your sponsorship can do
> A contribution of $60 will immunize 100 children
> A contribution of US$150 will buy a bicycle to distribute vaccine
> A contribution of $275 will buy T-shirts to make health workers safe
> and highly visible during a National Immunization Day
> A contribution of $200 will buy 10,000 pamphlets to inform the public
> about an upcoming immunization campaign
> A contribution of $1,000 will buy 700 vaccine carriers to ensure the
> oral polio vaccine is maintained at the correct temperature.