Working on eradicating polio
Waikato Sunrise supports PolioPlus
Each year, Waikato Sunrise donates funds to the PolioPlus campaign to support Rotary’s worldwide mission to eradicate polio.
What is Polio Plus?
Rotary launched PolioPlus – a program to immunise the world’s children against polio – in 1985 and became a spearheading partner in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative three years later, along with the World Health Organization, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and UNICEF. The international polio eradication effort has benefited immensely from Rotary’s ongoing support.
The Gates Foundation has awarded US$355 million in challenge grants to Rotary for use in the global effort to eradicate polio. Rotary has responded with Rotary’s US$200 Million Challenge (web). As of January 2011, Rotary clubs have raised $160 million towards this goal. The resulting $555 million will directly support immunisation campaigns in developing countries, where polio continues to infect and paralyze children, robbing them of their futures and compounding the hardships faced by their families. As long as polio threatens even one child anywhere in the world, children everywhere remain at risk so the stakes are that high. We are this close… (video)
End Polio Now!
After 20 years of hard work, Rotary and its partners are on the brink of eradicating this tenacious disease, but a strong push is needed now to root it out once and for all. It is a window of opportunity of historic proportions.
Watch Every Last Child (web) for progress with the Polio Eradication Intiative (website updated weekly).
To donate to Polio Plus: