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Home | Archive | Press release Gates $100M for Polio

Click on Polio Plus letter from RI President Wilfrid Wilkinson.pdf to read his message

 This is a newsworthy item which you can submit to your local media with details of how your club has helped the polio campaign. Drop in your club report in the space indicated.

You can download the following as a Word document by clicking on Press release Gates _100million for Polio.doc


$200 million boost to eradicate polio


Rotary International has announced a partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that will inject a much-needed US$200 million into the global campaign to eradicate polio, a crippling and sometimes fatal disease that still paralyses children in parts of Africa, Asia and the Middle East and threatens children everywhere.



… Say here what your club has done to help Polio….


The Rotary Foundation has received a $100-million Gates Foundation grant, which Rotary will raise funds to match, dollar-for-dollar, over three years. The Rotary volunteer service organisation will spend the initial $100 million within one year in direct support of immunisation activities carried out by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, a partnership spearheaded by the World Health Organisation, Rotary International, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and UNICEF.

"The extraordinary dedication of Rotary members has played a critical role in bringing polio to the brink of eradication," says Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. "Eradicating polio will be one of the most significant public health accomplishments in history, and we are committed to helping reach that goal."


The polio eradication grant is one of the largest challenge grants ever given by the Gates Foundation and the largest grant received by Rotary in its 102-year history. Polio eradication has been Rotary’s top priority since 1985. Since then, Rotary hascontributed $633 million to the eradication effort.


Founded in Chicago in 1905, Rotary is a worldwide organization of business and professional leaders who provide humanitarian service and help to build goodwill and peace in the world. Rotary’s global membership is approximately 1.2 million men and women who belong to more than 32,000 Rotary clubs in more than 200 countries and geographical areas.