Rotary Clubs of Rochdale save over 5000 children from polio

Saturday was Rotary’s “Thanks for life” collection at nearly 400 Tesco Stores over the country, including the store at Rochdale. The money was collected as part of the Rotary “Polio Plus” campaign.

Members of both the Rotary Club of Rochdale and the Rotary Club of Rochdale East wish to thank the many shoppers who between them put £552.49 into the collection boxes.

This money is sufficient to immunise approximately 2760 children. However, thanks to the support of Bill Gates the money will be match funded which raises the number to over 5500 children saved from polio thanks to the generosity of the people of Rochdale.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded US$255 million to Rotary International in the global effort to eradicate polio, bringing the total committed by Rotary and the Gates Foundation to $555 million.

“Rotarians, government leaders, and health professionals have made a phenomenal commitment to get us to a point at which polio afflicts only a small number of the world’s children,” Gates said. “However, complete elimination of the poliovirus is difficult and will continue to be difficult for a number of years. Rotary in particular has inspired my own personal commitment to get deeply involved in achieving eradication.”

Mr Gates also shared with Rotary a story from his trip to India in November 2008, when he held a nine-month-old girl afflicted with polio in his arms in a slum in East Delhi.

“She obviously didn’t understand why people were poking her legs and looking so serious. But she’ll never be able to kick a ball around, never be able to play hide-and-seek with her friends, because she has polio,” Gates said. “As I held Hashmin, I thought, We can end this.

“We don’t know exactly when the last child will be affected. But we do have the vaccines to wipe it out,” he said.

“Countries do have the will to deploy all the tools at their disposal. If we all have the fortitude to see this effort through to the end, then we will eradicate polio.”