Rotary Club of Knaresborough

On Rotary Day – Tuesday 23^rd  February hundreds of local school children took part in "Purple Pinkie Day"– so called because in India, when millions of children are immunised in one day, a dot of purple dye is put on a child's left-hand little fingernail to indicate that it has been immunised. Pupils at Aspin Park, Goldsborough, King James's, Scotton Lingerfield, Spofforth and Tockwith schools paid to receive their own "Purple Pinkie"and raised over £730 towards Rotary's 'End Polio Now' campaign.

Polio is a crippling, and sometimes fatal, disease it is a harrowing reality for children in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria where the disease is still endemic. Since 1985 Rotary has been battling to eradicate the disease which is now down to less than 1,500 cases annually in the world. Thanks to a match funding grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation every £1 raised in this campaign will purchase five doses of the anti-polio vaccine that is 3,650 children protected against Polio!