| Rotary International
and PolioPlus
PR32 EN-12/01
Background
Rotary International was founded in 1905 and is the world’s
first and one of the largest non-profit service organizations.
It is comprised of 1.2 million members working in over 30,000
clubs in 162 countries. Rotary members initiate community
projects that address many of today’s most critical
issues such as violence, AIDS, hunger, the environment and
health care.
PolioPlus
In 1985, Rotary International created PolioPlus –
a program to immunize all the world’s children against
polio by 2005 – Rotary’s centennial. In that
same year, Rotary began a fundraising drive, which collected
more than US$ 247 million to fund global polio eradication
efforts. To date, the PolioPlus program has contributed
US$ 438 million to the protection of more than two billion
children in 122 countries. These funds are providing much
needed polio vaccine, operational support, medical personnel,
laboratory equipment and educational materials for health
workers and parents.
By 2005, Rotary’s financial commitment will reach
a half billion US dollars.
With its community-based network worldwide, Rotary is the
volunteer arm of the global partnership dedicated to eradicating
polio. Rotary volunteers assist in vaccine delivery, social
mobilization and logistical help in cooperation with the
national health ministries, the World Health Organization
(WHO), UNICEF, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention.
PolioPlus is one of the most ambitious humanitarian undertakings
made by a private entity ever. It will serve as a paradigm
for private/public collaborations in the fight against disease
well into the next century.
PolioPlus Advocacy
With the end of polio in sight, the eradication campaign
enters the most difficult leg of the journey involving the
poorest regions of the world. Rotary’s Polio Eradication
Advocacy Task Force reaches out to governments worldwide
to obtain vital financial and technical support needed to
reach the goal of a polio-free 21st century, and these efforts
have paid off. Since 1995, donor governments have contributed
in excess of US$ 1 billion to polio eradication, due in
part to Rotary’s advocacy efforts.
Countries such as Canada, Australia, Denmark, the United
Kingdom, The Netherlands and the United States are now major
financial donors to this historic health initiative.
Private Sector Appeal
The World Health Organization estimates that US$1 billion
is needed in external aid in the years 2001-2005, considerably
more than the amount estimated when Rotary began its advocacy
efforts in 1995. Of this, some US$600 million has been committed
by national governments and other organizations, leaving
a funding gap of US$400 million.
To meet this funding challenge, Rotary and the United Nations
Foundation are collaborating in an urgent appeal to private
sector corporations, foundations and philanthropists to
close the funding gap that is now the greatest threat to
the program. The Polio Eradication Private Sector Campaign,
known as “Countdown to a Polio-Free World,”
will help to secure funds by the end of 2002.
Rotary in Action
Besides raising funds, over one million men and women of
Rotary have donated their time and personal resources to
help immunize nearly 2 billion children during National
Immunization Days throughout the world.
Rotarians prepare and distribute different types of mass
communication tools to get the message to people cut off
from the mainstream by conflict, geography or poverty. Rotarians
also recruit fellow volunteers, assist with transporting
the vaccine, administer the vaccine to children and provide
other logistical support.
- In India over 100,000 Rotary members
and their families joined the Indian Government in January
2001 in immunizing over 150 million children in one day
-- signaling the largest public health event ever in the
world.
- After extensive efforts to eradicate polio in Cambodia,
health officials tracked the remaining pockets of polio
to children living on the waterways, missed by the previously-held
NIDs.
Rotary volunteers joined health officials in a boat-to-boat
follow-up campaign to successfully reach this population
and wipe out the virus.
- In Uganda, Rotarians are actively
participating in the planning and implementation of National
Immunization Days. Thousands of Rotary volunteers assist
authorities by providing cold storage facilities, transporting
vaccine to every immunization post, and helping track
children who may have missed the immunization. As respected
leaders in their communities, Rotarians play a key advocacy
role to win people’s confidence in the program.
- In Kenya, Rotaractors and Interactors,
the youth wings of Rotary clubs worldwide, provide free
lunches to all health workers in the Nairobi area. They
pack lunch boxes, organize distribution teams, and transport
meals to more than 1,500 health care staff.
- In 1996 and 1997, Rotarians in Angola
led a campaign to solicit corporate jets, helicopters
and vehicles to move the vaccine through Angola’s
land mine infested countryside. Additional volunteers
mobilized by a single Rotary club helped the government
reach 80 percent of its target population of children
fewer than five years of age.
PolioPlus Partners
The PolioPlus Partners Program was initiated in 1995 to
support the costs of supplemental activities involved in
polio eradication. Participation in the PolioPlus Partners
Program has linked Rotary clubs and districts around the
world, creating partners between Rotarians from polio-free
countries and Rotarians in polio-endemic countries who work
to educate parents, distribute the vaccine, and immunize
children. PolioPlus Partners provides the necessary tools
to achieve a world without polio.
While the PolioPlus Program addresses vaccine and logistical
costs associated with mass immunization campaigns and surveillance
activities, the PolioPlus Partners Program funds promotional
materials to advise communities when and where immunization
activities will take place.
The Program also funds “cold chain” equipment
such as refrigerators and cold boxes to maintain the vaccine
at appropriate temperatures, some laboratory needs, vehicles
used for surveillance activities, and trained epidemiologists
to assist in identifying polio eradication needs and in
coordinating immunization activities. Since 1995, Rotarians
have contributed over US$ 28 million to PolioPlus Partners.
Lasting Legacy
It is estimated that the world will save 1.5 billion US
dollars in routine immunizations after polio is eradicated.
The savings in human suffering will be immeasurable.
- In the United States, over US$ 350 million a year will
be saved once polio immunization is no longer necessary.
- In the European Union, it is estimated that US $333
million will be saved on routine
immunization costs once polio is eradicated.
- Since 1979, the US has been recouping its entire contribution
to smallpox eradication every 26 days.
PolioPlus – Rotary’s gift to the children
of the world.
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