World Polio Day

At the same time, Rotary International is celebrating a major milestone reached in its global fundraising campaign to eradicate polio - nearly US$100 million raised toward its US$200 million challenge.    
 
As part of a US$355 million challenge grant awarded to Rotary by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Rotary clubs worldwide are aiming to raise a total of US$200 million by 2012. The funding will provide critical support to polio eradication activities, including the distribution of a new, more effective bivalent polio vaccine that was recently approved for use in the coming months, for countries still battling the disease in parts of Africa and South Asia. 
 
Since 1985, eradicating polio worldwide has been Rotary's top philanthropic goal.  In addition to the funds announced today, Rotary has contributed more than $800 million and countless volunteer hours to the protection of more than two billion children in 122 countries.    The disease remains endemic in just four countries -- Afghanistan, India, Nigeria, and Pakistan -- although other countries remain at risk for imported cases.
 

The Global Polio Eradication Initiative is spearheaded by the World Health Organization, Rotary International, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).  It includes the support of governments and private sector donors.
 
Rotary is an organization of business and professional leaders united worldwide to provide humanitarian service and help to build goodwill and peace in the world. It is comprised of 1.2 million members working in more than 33,000 clubs in 200 countries and geographic regions.

Rotary invites the public to support the polio eradication initiative by visiting rotary.org/endpolio . Cell phone users can donate $5 by texting the word "polio" to 90999.
                                                                                        
For further information visit, www.rotary.org/endpolio or www.polioeradication.org .