This year, our club's goal is to raise $1,025 in contributions to the PolioPlus Fund. President Linda Gerber set that goal to signify our $1,000 goal from last year plus $25 for the 25th birthday the club is celebrating this May. And we've more than met that goal, with contributions from club members totaling $1,672 as of April 26. That's nearly $73 per member!But the fiscal year's not over yet. For World Immunization Week (April 24-30, 2022), we decided to collect pennies (and other coins and bills) for polio up through our April 28 meeting. And generous members gave and gave and gave. At the end of the day, we were able to write a check from the club to PolioPlus for $215. That's a lot of change!
World Immunization Week is a project of the World Health Organization (WHO). Celebrated the last week of April each year, World Immunization Week highlights the need for collective action and promotes the use of vaccines to protect people of all ages against disease. Not only does WHO raise awareness, but the organization ensures that governments have the necessary guidance and technical support to implement high-quality immunization programs.
Polio is just one of the diseases addressed by WHO, but it is one close to every Rotarian's heart. Rotary first became involved in polio eradication in 1979, when James Bomar Jr., then Rotary International president, administered drops of the oral polio vaccine to children in the Philippines. In 1985, the PolioPlus Fund was launched, making it the "first and largest internationally coordinated private-sector support of a public health initiative." Talk about "people of action"!
Since then, Rotary and other partners have immunized more than 2.5 billion children against polio in 122 countries. As a Rotary webpage says, since 1988, "We have reduced polio cases by 99.9% worldwide and we won't stop until we end the disease for good."
And we're nearly there. In 2021, 6 cases of wild polio and 643 cases of vaccine-derived polio were reported globally. As of March 26, there was only 1 case of wild polio and 11 cases of vaccine-derived polio reported. We're more than a quarter through the year, so these numbers look good.
As you can tell, our club takes our goal of eradicating polio seriously. Given that we've more than met our goal for the year, we're striving to double it to $2,050. With this latest club contribution, we only have $163 more to go!