Rotary clubs worldwide will hosts events to mark World Polio Day on October 24 to recognize historic progress against a disease that once paralysed hundreds of thousands of children each year.
It comes as Rotary gives out $49.5 million in grants to support immunization and surveillance activities led by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.
The funding has $9.32 million for Afghanistan, $8.94 million for Pakistan and $7.71 million for Nigeria— only the three countries still reporting cases of the virus.
Only 11 confirmed cases of polio have been reported this year, bringing efforts to the brink of eradicating polio worldwide.
This year’s celebration at Rotary Foundation’s Seattle headquarters will be co-hosted by Rotary and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The programme will feature an update on the global fight to end polio and an array of guest speakers, celebrities, and public health experts. People around the world can view the livestream of the event at endpolio.org/worldpolioday on Oct. 24 at 2:30 p.m. Pacific time.
“Rotary and its partners are closer than ever to eradicating polio,” says Michael K. McGovern, chair of Rotary’s International PolioPlus Committee, which leads the organization’s polio eradication efforts.
“World Polio Day is the ideal opportunity to celebrate our successes, raise public awareness, and talk about what is needed to end this paralyzing disease for good.”
Without full funding and political commitment to eradication, the disease could return to countries that are now polio-free and put children everywhere at risk.
Further funding will support efforts to keep six vulnerable countries polio-free, including $2.37 million to Chad, $4.5 million for the Democratic Republic of Congo, $961,000 for Guinea, $1.62 million for Somalia, $3.77 million for South Sudan and $2.56 million for Sudan.
An additional $7.74 million will go toward surveillance activities in Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean region.
In a show of solidarity and to raise awareness and funds for polio eradication, Rotary clubs around the globe will host nearly 1,900 events for World Polio Day. They include:
- A viewing party of the livestream in Fond du Lac, Wis.
- A Rock vs. Polio music event in Curitiba, Brazil
- Placing of End Polio Now piggy banks in local businesses to collect donations in Viljoenskroon, South Africa
- A soccer game in Cairo, Egypt between the street children of Hope Village Society and students from local engineering colleges
- A golf fundraiser in Yoshiwara, Japan
“To protect all children from polio, world governments and donors must see through their commitments to fund critical work and support rigorous disease surveillance in both endemic and at-risk polio-free countries,” says McGovern. Rotary has committed to raising $150 million over the next three years, which will be matched 2-to-1 by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, yielding $450 million for polio eradication activities, including immunization and surveillance.
