Support Rotary’s World Polio Day fundraiser

Rotary members will take action on World Polio Day to raise awareness, funds, and support to end polio, a vaccine-preventable disease that still threatens children in parts of the world today.

The Rotary Club of Hibiscus Coast will be cooking and selling boerewors rolls donated by Uvongo SPAR in the store’s parking lot on Saturday, October 24 from 8am to 2pm.

All proceeds will go towards the club’s annual contribution to the end polio fund.

Rotarian Elise Airey, co-ordinator of the polio awareness fundraiser, said more than one million Rotary members had donated their time and money to help eradicate polio, and every year hundreds of members worked with health workers to vaccinate children in countries affected by the disease.

“Rotary members work with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and other partners to prepare and distribute informational materials to people in areas that are isolated by conflict, geography, or poverty. They also recruit fellow volunteers, assist in transporting the vaccine, and provide other logistical support.”

When Rotary and its partners launched the Global Polio Eradication Initiative in 1988, there were 350,000 cases of polio in 125 countries every year.

They have made great progress against the disease since then. Today, polio cases have been reduced by 99.9 percent, and just two countries continue to report cases of the wild poliovirus – Afghanistan and Pakistan.

With polio nearly eradicated, Rotary and its partners must sustain this progress and continue to reach every child with the polio vaccine.

Without full funding and political commitment, this paralysing disease could return to polio-free countries, putting children everywhere at risk.

Rotary has contributed more than $2.1 billion (R34,676,354,029) to ending polio since 1985, including an average of R15 000 donated annually by the Rotary Club of Hibiscus Coast.

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