POLIO UPDATE

On August 25 the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Africa region, has officially been certified free from wild poliovirus signifying a major milestone in the battle to eradicate the disease worldwide.

This progress is the result of a decades-long effort across the 47 countries which make up the WHO’s African region and now means that five of the six WHO regions, which represent 90% of the world’s population, will be free of wild polio.

Rotary members have played an invaluable role in the effort to rid the African region of wild polio.

By raising funds for polio eradication, advocating with world governments and national and local leaders, and raising awareness, Rotarians have contributed nearly US $890 million to conquer polio in the region.

For the last two years our own club has been raising awareness for this important campaign by running our annual crocus competition and we have also contributed through Rotary Foundation.

This year we will again be running a competition and will be distributing crocus corms to local organisations and schools that would like to become involved.

We aim to distribute the corms so that they can all be planted before World Polio day which is October 24. Hopefully we will look to put on other events to raise awareness and fund raise for this important cause and the next target is to eliminate the disease from the two remaining countries-Iraq and Pakistan.

When we have further information we will update this page. Hopefully you will join us in this year’s campaign.