OSHAWA, ONTARIO – October 21, 2013 -- In honor of World Polio Day 2013, which is widely recognized on October 24, the Rotary Clubs of Oshawa and Oshawa-Parkwood received proclamations from The City of Oshawa on Monday October 21, 2013, at the noon hour meeting of the Rotary Club of Oshawa, at the Oshawa Golf Club, it was announced today, by Jim Scott, President of the Rotary Club of Oshawa.
Oshawa Mayor (who is also a fellow Oshawa Rotarian) John Henry presented the Proclamations to Jim Scott, President of the Oshawa Rotary Club and to Alan Finnigan, President of the Oshawa-Parkwood Rotary Club. Mayor Henry said, “I am so proud of my Rotary Club of Oshawa and also the Oshawa-Parkwood Rotary Club for their efforts in Rotary’s 28-year mission to eradicate the crippling childhood disease, polio”.
As World Polio Day draws closer, the world is 99.9% polio free, the fight to end polio is not over and Rotary Clubs world-wide continue to raise funds to meet the challenge. A US$700-million funding gap threatens to undermine all of the progress achieved against the disease since 1988, when Rotary joined with the World Health Organization, UNICEF and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to launch the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.
In response to the crisis, Rotary International, on Sept. 27, 2012, announced a funding commitment of $75 million for polio eradication over the next three years during a special United Nations General Assembly session on polio convened by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Rotary also delivered to the UN an online petition supporting polio eradication signed by more than 7,000 global citizens.
In September, 2013, the Canadian government announced a contribution to the polio eradication effort at a side meeting during the United Nations General Assembly. The Canadian International Development Agency and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will each give to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative One Canadian Dollar for every $1 raised by Canadian Rotarians up to $1 million. Upon completion, the initiative will generate a total of $3 million.
“The fundraising by the Rotarians allows them to ask for support from the Canadian public at large,” said Wilf Wilkinson, a Rotarian in the Trenton Ontario Rotary Club and a Past Rotary International President, who was the keynote speaker at the Rotary Club luncheon meeting at the Oshawa Golf Club on Ocotber 21, 2013.
“The fact that the Government of Canada and the Gates Foundation are behind Rotary’s polio eradication efforts is a big plus and helps our overall awareness efforts”, he added.
To date, Rotary members have contributed nearly $1.2 billion to the effort. Coinciding with World Polio Day, Rotary is ramping up its advocacy work in the 200 countries and regions where Rotary clubs exist to encourage every national government to commit to the funding levels needed to close the gap.
The irony is that despite the funding gap, there has never been a more opportune time to finish off polio, with new cases at an all-time low and the wild poliovirus now confined to only a few pockets in Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan. In 1988, polio infected and disabled about 350,000 people a year, most of them children. In 2011, fewer than 700 cases were reported – a reduction of more than 99 percent. The success is due to mass immunization drives that have reached more than two billion children with the oral polio vaccine.
But public health experts say that if the eradication effort stalls now, polio could rebound quickly, potentially paralyzing 250,000 children a year. Unvaccinated children everywhere, including countries now polio-free, would be at greatly increased risk.
World Polio Day follows a succession of significant developments that have made 2012 one of the most important years in the history of the polio eradication initiative.
· In January, Rotary announced it had raised more than the $200 million in new money for polio eradication called for in a $355 million challenge grant from the Gates Foundation. The total is now $228 million and growing. In recognition of Rotary’s effort, the Gates Foundation added another $50 million. Total funding package: $605+ million.
· In February, India was removed from the list of polio-endemic countries. Many health experts expected India to be polio’s final stronghold, so the country’s polio-free designation after a full year of no new cases represents a major milestone.
· In May, the World Health Assembly declared polio eradication to be a “programmatic emergency for global public health,” in recognition of the dichotomy posed by the increased risk of failure due to the funding gap, opposite the significant progress represented by the reduction in cases and polio’s shrinking geographical presence.
The message to world leaders is clear: support the final push to achieve eradication now while the goal has never been closer, or face the potential consequences of a new polio pandemic that could disable millions of children within a decade.
Oshawa-Parkwood Rotary President Alan Finnigan said, “On Wednesday, October 24, 2012 many cities all over the world are proclaiming Wednesday World Polio Day in honour of Rotary’s efforts to eradicate polio from the world. In Toronto the “End Polio Now” flag will fly high over City Hall at a 10:00 am flag raising ceremony.”
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 US 60 cents worth of vaccine, a child can be protected against this crippling disease for life. After the successful engagement of over 200 countries and 20 million volunteers, polio could be the first human disease of the 21st century to be eradicated.
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 other private sector donors.
Rotary’s main responsibilities are fundraising, advocacy, and volunteer recruitment. Since 1995, the advocacy efforts of Rotary and its partners have helped raise more than $8 billion from donor governments. And Rotary clubs also provide on the ground help in polio affected communities.
“It is so important to generate the funds needed to End Polio Now. To fail is to invite a polio resurgence that would condemn millions of children to lifelong paralysis in the years ahead. The bottom line is this: As long as polio threatens even one child anywhere in the world, all children – wherever they live – remain at risk”, said Mr. Patchett, Chairman of Rotary International District 7070’s (southern Ontario) Rotary Foundation and the End polio Now Coordinator for Rotary Clubs in Eastern Canada and northeastern United States.
The main objective of Rotary International is service, in the community and throughout the world. As volunteers, Rotarians build goodwill and peace, provide humanitarian service, and encourage high ethical standards in all vocations.
Rotary invites the public to support the polio eradication initiative by visiting www.rotary.org/endpolio and be sure to visit the www.rotaryoshawa.org and the www.rotaryoshawa-parkwood.org website for more information about the two Oshawa Rotary Clubs.