This October, local members of the Upper Northern Beaches Rotary Club are challenging ourselves to walk, run or roll 10, 20 or 50km throughout the month and raise vital funds that will help eradicate and prepare us for a Polio free world.
Over 30 years ago, Rotary made a promise to the world to eradicate polio. When we get there, it will be only the second time that a disease affecting humans has been eradicated.
Today, 19.4 million people who would otherwise be paralyzed by polio are walking, and 1.5 million people who would otherwise have died are alive. If all eradication efforts stopped today, within 10 years, polio could paralyse as many as 200,000 children each year. A polio-free world will be a healthier world for children everywhere.
Polio eradication will be one of history’s greatest public health achievements, with polio following smallpox to become only the second human disease eradicated from the world. At the end of the 1980s, more than 350,000 children in 25 countries were paralysed by polio every year. Today, we have reduced polio cases by 99.9 percent, and just two countries continue to report cases of wild poliovirus: Afghanistan and Pakistan, but no child anywhere is safe until we have vaccinated every child.
Rotary has committed to raising $50 million per year for polio eradication. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has pledged to match that 2-to-1, for a total commitment of $150 million each year. These funds provide much-needed operational support, medical workers, laboratory equipment, and educational materials. Governments, corporations, and private donors all play a crucial role in funding.
How can you help? This October we are asking you to
#walkwithus for those who can't
Sign up to Walk, run or roll 10, 20 or 50km throughout the month of October (all while maintaining your social distance) and raise vital funds that will help eradicate and prepare us for a Polio free world. Wherever you live, whatever your fitness level, you can decide where, when and how you Walk With Us to end Polio. Anyone! Be you a Rotarian or not. Whether you’re an individual, a team, a bunch of mates, or an entire sports club or a person with a Great Dane or 3 – register for Rotary’s Walk With Us or Donate to the Upper Northern Beaches Rotary Team.
Polio is the world’s forgotten disease and something that should have been made history a long time ago. Polio is a crippling and potentially fatal infectious disease. There is no cure, but there are safe and effective vaccines. The strategy to eradicate polio is therefore based on preventing infection by immunizing every child until transmission stops and the world is polio-free.
That is why, this October we are asking you to #walkwithus for those that can’t.
In recent months we have all had to find new ways to stay fit and healthy. Rotary’s Walk With Us End Polio Walk is a fitness challenge that you can complete from October 1st to 31st to reach your target in a COVIDsafe way.
Join something special: Walk With Us this October for those that can’t.
Be part of the end game strategy and raise funds to help make Polio history so that no child ever again suffers paralytic poliomyelitis.
On World Polio Day, October 24th, and during the month of October, watch out for and support your local Upper Northern Beaches Club Rotarians in their red “End Polio Now” T-Shirts and ask us about Rotary and the work we do in the community including End Polio Now.
Please visit: www.rotarywalkwithus.org
Colette Cuscak
Upper Northern Beaches Rotary Club Member
Look out for Upper Northern Beaches Rotary Club wearing this t-shirt. NB: they may not all be wearing tutus.
