World Polio Day 2022 – Updating Rotary’s Efforts to Eradicate Polio Worldwide

About this class

In honor of World Polio Day, which is widely recognized on October 24, the Rotary Clubs of Oshawa and Oshawa-Parkwood and Durham College, on behalf of the 11 Rotary Clubs in Durham Region (plus Port Hope) are co-hosting and livestreaming “World Polio Day 2022 LIVE from the Rotary Global Classroom at Durham College in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada” located in the Centre for Collaborative Education at Durham College on Thursday, October 20, 2022.

During the World Polio Day 2022 event at Durham College, we will also be livestreaming Rotary International's tenth annual World Polio Day video, as we celebrate the 34th anniversary of the founding of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.

Dr. Bob Scott – (Past Vice President of Rotary International, Past Chair of the Trustees of The Rotary Foundation and Past Chair of the Rotary International PolioPlus Committee) will be updating the world-wide audience about Rotary’s efforts to eradicate polio. We will also hear from Valarie Wafer (Immediate Past Rotary International Vice-President and Director), Dr. Tunji Funsho (Chair of Polio Plus in Nigeria) and Gordon McInally (President of Rotary International 2023-24) as they all discuss what Rotary is doing to eradicate polio from the world, the challenges ahead, and what we can do to help.

We will also hear by video from our special guest, Jennifer Jones, the current 2022-23 President of Rotary International (from Windsor Ontario, Canada), as she also talks about Rotary’s world-wide efforts to eradicate polio from the world.

We will see proclamations indicating October 24 as World Polio Day, thanking the local Rotary Clubs for their efforts to raise funds and create awareness about our efforts to eradicate polio from the face of the earth, being presented to the 10 Rotary Clubs in Durham Region from Durham Regional Chair John Henry (a fellow Rotarian).

We will also see End Polio Now Flags flying high over many of the cities in Durham Region, the municipality of 700,000 just east of Toronto.

We will take as many questions as possible and direct them to our guests.

And finally, we will livestream Rotary International’s End Polio Now 2022 presentation from 8:00 pm to 8:30 pm.

We encourage everyone to join the 100 guests in the Rotary Global Classroom as the Rotary Clubs of Oshawa and Oshawa-Parkwood partner with Durham College to present World Polio Day 2022 LIVE from in the Rotary Global Classroom in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada and see for yourself how close we are to eradicating polio from this world.

Background

The world is on the verge of eliminating one of the most dreaded diseases of the 20th century -- poliomyelitis. During the first half of the 20th century, polio crippled over a half a million people every year. Even today, children in some developing countries continue to fall victim to the disease. But thanks in large part to Rotary International and to the 1.4 million Rotary members worldwide, including the Durham Region Rotary Clubs, the disease will soon be all but a memory.

As World Polio Day draws closer, the world is 99.9 percent polio-free, the fight to end polio is not over, and Rotary Clubs world-wide continue to raise funds to meet the challenge.

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. We’ve made great progress against the disease since then. Today, polio cases have been reduced to 18 cases year-to-date in 2022 – 13 in Pakistan, one in Afghanistan and one in Mozambique. We remain committed to the end.

The Global Polio E radication Initiative, formed in 1988, is a public-private partnership that includes Rotary, the World Health Organization, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, UNICEF, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and governments of the world. Rotary’s focus is advocacy, fundraising, volunteer recruitment and awareness-building.

Since 1985, Rotary members world-wide have contributed nearly US$2.3 billion to help immunize nearly 3 billion children against polio, and we have helped secure billions of dollars from donor governments worldwide. 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.

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 paralyzing disease could return to polio-free countries, putting children everywhere at risk. Since 2020, Rotarians have been challenged to raise US$50 million each year for 3 years to support global polio eradication efforts. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has pledged to match that 2 for 1, for a yearly annual contribution of $150 million.

Today, polio remains endemic only in Afghanistan and Pakistan. But it’s crucial we continue to work to keep other countries polio-free. If all eradication efforts stopped today, within 10 years, polio could paralyze as many as 200,000 children each year.