9:30am Monday 8th February 2010
By Claire Marshall
THIS month the Cotswold Tyndale Rotary Club will be fundraising as part of a national campaign to completely eradicate polio as a world disease. In this three part series the Gazette hopes to make you more aware of this huge and important task and to tell you how you can help make a difference.
IN 1985 when the International Rotary Club got involved with the polio mission 1,000 children around the world were infected with the disease every day. Thanks to a massively ambitious immunisation project, by 2008 there were fewer than 2,000 cases per year.
Back in 1985 polio was endemic in 125 countries in the world, today we are on the cusp of eradicating it altogether with it being endemic in just four countries – Afghanistan, India, Nigeria and Pakistan.
Rotary International, which is the largest private sector contributor to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, has raised £376 million to fund the programme to date, with Rotary Clubs in Britain and Ireland raising £10.5 million of that total. However it is widely accepted that this large stage to completely get rid of the disease, as done in the past with Smallpox, will be the hardest part and Rotary International is hoping to raise £200 million this month as part of their End Polio Now campaign.
The Cotswold Tyndale Rotary Club has set itself the target of raising £1,800, and much of this will be with the help of local primary schools in the area.
Brian Lamerton, a member of the club, said: "We really wanted to get the younger children involved because polio mostly affects young children, particularly those under the age of five."
Ten schools have agreed to help the campaign and over the next few weeks Rotary Club members will be visiting them to give them a talk about polio and to hold a special finger dipping ceremony.
In developing countries when immunisation days are held every child that gets given a dose of the vaccine has their little finger dipped in purple dye so they don’t get vaccinated again.
Children at Cam Hopton were the first to take part in the event, in which their finger is marked with a purple pen. The children were encouraged to donate £1 and wear something pink or purple for the day - every £1 will buy five doses of the vaccine.
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