Purple4Polio

In 1985, Rotary launched its PolioPlus program, the first initiative to tackle global polio eradication through the mass vaccination of children. Rotary has contributed more than $1.6 billion (£1.3 billion) and countless volunteer hours to immunize more than 2.5 billion children in 122 countries. In addition, Rotary’s advocacy efforts have played a role in decisions by donor governments to contribute more than $7.2 billion (£5.3 billion) to the effort.

Today, there are only two countries where transmission of the wild poliovirus continues, Afghanistan and Pakistan. At the end of June 2017 only 6 cases were confirmed worldwide, which is a reduction of more than 99.9 percent since the 1980s, when the world saw about 1,000 cases per day.