End Polio Now - Crocus Planting November 2023

We had the pleasure of planting crocuses with the help of House Captains from  Westfield Junior School - St Ives to raise awareness of efforts to end Polio.

Previously, Rotarian Eliz Swain had spoken to the pupils at Westfield, to make them aware about the significance of the Crocuses and the role that Rotary has taken to reduce the number of cases of Polio. 

The children remembered that the colour purple echoes the purple dye painted on the little finger of every child who had been immunised. Since 1985, Rotary’s key humanitarian priority has been to rid the world of polio.  Rotary spear-headed the campaign at a time when there were over 1000 cases in a day in 125 countries, paralysing and even killing children.  Today the number of cases is down by 99.9%.

To date in 2023 there have been just 2 cases in Pakistan and 5 in Afganistan attributed to wild polio virus.

Fortunately the sun shone down on us when Rotarians, and helpers prepared the soil for the children to scatter the bulbs...