Community & Clubs:

Rotary International celebrated World Polio Day on Saturday, a milestone in its global fundraising campaign to eradicate polio. Rotary raised nearly $100 million toward its $200-million challenge. This included contributions from the Rotary Clubs and members of Newport-Balboa, Newport Irvine, Newport Beach Sunrise and Costa Mesa, said Marc Aarons, Newport-Balboa president.

As part of a $355-million challenge grant awarded to Rotary by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Rotary clubs locally and worldwide are aiming to raise a total of $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. It was recently approved for use in the coming months in parts of Africa and South Asia still affected by the disease.

Since 1985, eradicating polio worldwide has been Rotary’s top philanthropic goal. In addition to $100 million, Rotary has contributed more than $800 million and countless volunteer hours to the protection of more than 2 billion children in 122 countries. The disease remains endemic in four countries — Afghanistan, India, Nigeria and Pakistan — although other countries remain at-risk for imported cases.

A highly infectious disease, polio causes paralysis and is sometimes fatal as there is no cure. The best protection is prevention. For as little as 60 cents, vaccinating a child for polio can protect him or her for life. After an international investment of more than $6.22 billion, and the successful engagement of more than 200 countries and 20 million volunteers, polio could be the first disease of the 21st century to be eradicated.

The Global Polio Eradication Initiative is spearheaded by the World Health Organization, Rotary International, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and 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 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.

Cell phone users can donate $5 by texting the word “polio” to 90999. For more information, visit www.rotary.org/endpolio or www.polioeradication.org.

WORTH REPEATING