With little more than three months to go until the Volunteer Expo, Rotary clubs across Great Britain & Ireland are being encouraged to double their efforts to take part in the Get Moving to End Polio fund-raiser.
Rotary in Great Britain & Ireland President, Donna Wallbank, has already committed to take part in a tandem skydive on the eve of May’s Rotary showpiece event in Birmingham, with a target of raising £12,400.
I'm Sky Diving to help Rotary 'End Polio Now' https://t.co/pIewXm1AgA @RotaryDGEDavid Thankyou for your donation for the skydive really appreciated x
— Donna Wallbank (@DonnaIWallbank) January 29, 2020
And organisers are encouraging Rotary clubs to play their part in the final three months of the campaign by hosting a fund-raiser which incorporates the figure 1,240.
This represents the mileage of the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, the last two polio-endemic countries in the world.
Only together can we end polio and we can all play our part in the continuing global efforts to eradicate polio.”
The Get Moving to End Polio initiative was launched by Donna on World Polio Day last October in Cardiff.
Members of Cardiff Rotary were joined at Cardiff Castle by the Donna Wallbank a member of Brynmawr Rotary, District Governor for Southern Wales, Peter Hamilton; national polio champion Jannine Birwistle who has taken part in national immunisation days in India and Mark Tredwin, racing driver and owner of ‘Team Treddie’.
You could sell more than 1,240 scoops of Purple4Polio ice cream at your event, aim for 1,240 entries in a competition or paint 1,240 pinkies in purple nail varnish. The ideas are only limited by your imagination.
Donna Wallbank, Rotary GB&I President, supporting the Get Moving to End Polio Now Campaign
Rotary celebrates its 115th anniversary later this month on Sunday, February 23rd, Rotary Day, which presents a fund-raising opportunity.
Each donation to Rotary will be trebled by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Until polio is totally eradicated, every child is at risk of this highly infectious, potentially life-threatening and paralysing disease.
There is no cure for polio but there is a safe and effective vaccine. We continue to give around 2 billion doses of vaccine annually to 450 million children worldwide.
If polio is not eradicated, we could see as many as 200,000 new cases across the world within 10 years.
When the world is declared polio free, it will be just the second human disease ever to be eradicated, after smallpox.
Clock Tower and City Hall will be bathed in purple light.
In order to sustain this progress, around two billion doses of the vaccine still have to be given to more than 400 million children in up to 60 countries every single year”.
Maggie Hughes, President of Cardiff Breakfast, one of the eight Rotary Clubs in Cardiff said: “Only together can we end polio and we can all play our part in the continuing global efforts to eradicate polio.”
Since Rotary and its partners launched the Global Polio Eradication Initiative over 30 years ago, the incidence of polio has plummeted by more than 99.99%, from about 350,000 cases a year in 125 countries to just 33 cases in 2018.
In order to sustain this progress, around two billion doses of the vaccine still have to be given to more than 400 million children in up to 60 countries every single year.
This is in addition to the routine immunisations that happen elsewhere around the world, including in the UK and Ireland.
Without full funding, political commitment and volunteer-led social action, there is a real threat that polio could return, putting children worldwide at risk.
Rotary has committed to raising US$50 million each year to support global polio eradication efforts, with that funding matched 2-to-1 by The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Rotary has contributed more than US$1.9 billion to ending polio since 1985.
For more information about the Get Moving to End Polio Campaign, visit our website
TO support Donna in her skydive and raise money to help End Polio Now, donate here
