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Rotary club members fight polio in India

Rotary club members fight polio in India

Photo: Polio vaccination gathering. Volunteers will also go door to door in remote communities with the medication. Dedicated Rotary club members from across Great Britain & Ireland are flying to India to take part in November’s National Immunisation Day  – when millions of children will be protected from the crippling and paralysing polio disease, as […]

Photo: Polio vaccination gathering. Volunteers will also go door to door in remote communities with the medication.

Dedicated Rotary club members from across Great Britain & Ireland are flying to India to take part in November’s National Immunisation Day  – when millions of children will be protected from the crippling and paralysing polio disease, as part of the Thanks for Life – End Polio Now campaign.

While in Delhi, the Rotary volunteers will also visit orphanages, schools and a local hospital to see first-hand how important the work to eradicate the polio virus from the world is. They’ll be linking with Rotarians from clubs all over Great Britain and Ireland and combining with health professionals to deliver the vaccine.

The 86 volunteers are looking forward to going: “It’s only when you see for yourself the terrible suffering caused by this disease that you can fully understand the need for action. This vaccine costs less than a penny and saves thousands of young lives. Nobody should face a lifetime of being painfully and severely crippled.

“It’s heartbreaking seeing tiny children affected by the polio virus, especially when it could have been avoided. Instead of running and playing as children should, they are struggling to stand. At home, we take it for granted that this disease is gone but here, it is very much a reality.”

Three thousand vaccination stations will be set up in the city of Lucknow alone, ready to welcome families and their children on the National Immunisation Day. Some families will find it difficult to travel to the vaccination stations, so Rotary volunteers will be going on the road to the remote villages, knocking on doors and immunising the children with the special polio vaccine as part of the service to the communities.

Once immunised, the children’s little fingers are dyed purple to keep track of who has already been given the protective medication, now known as the Purple Pinkie.
 
Polio is a crippling, and sometimes fatal, disease and still a harrowing reality for children in parts of Africa, Asia and India. It is highly virulent. Rotary clubs work tirelessly throughout the year raising funds to pay for the Rotary End Polio Now initiative.

Since Rotary got involved with the eradication work in 1985, new cases have fallen from 1,000 a day to around 1,500 a year – saving over 5,000,000 children from being infected over this period.

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