This week will see ten Manchester students make the incredible climb up Mt. Kilimanjaro to raise money for End Polio Now, Rotary International’s campaign, which aims to eradicate polio around the globe.
The multinational team, which consists of Cecilia Kern, Kasia Chaberski, Mike Hadadd, Jack Snoddy, Glori Abreu, Stephanie Miranda, Imad Sawma, Dina Weinstein, Shady Abi Nader and Scott Fix, are postgraduate students currently studying at the Global Development Institute at the University of Manchester, the third leading program for the study of International Development.
The team will travel to Mt. Kilimanjaro before beginning their 5,895m and 7-day climb along the Machame route, often called “The Whisky Route”.
Kasia and Cecilia, who were inspired to get involved in the fight against polio after being given a Rotary scholarship to study International Development in the UK, decided upon the climb.
By enlisting the help of their friends they hope to raise $25,000 for the global initiative, which aims to achieve only the second ever complete eradication of a disease from the world after smallpox.
Whilst taking part in the climb, the students will also be supporting Purple4Polio, Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland’s newly launched campaign, which will use the colour purple in a variety of events across the UK to raise awareness of polio and the fight against it.
The colour purple has been chosen as it represents the colour of the dye placed on the little finger of a child on mass immunisation days when literally millions of children in entire countries are protected against the disease.
President of Great Britain and Ireland, Eve Conway presented the team with a Purple4Polio Rotary Polio Bear to accompany them on the way to the top.
Celicia explains, “We are thrilled with the amount of support we have received from the community, both in the UK and the USA. It is an honor to work with rotary in this endeavour of raising funds and spreading awareness of this humanitarian challenge. We hope that our work will have a meaningful impact in the fight to end polio for good.”
For more than 30 years, Rotarians have been committed to fighting to eradicate polio across the world. The amount of polio-endemic countries has dropped from 125 to just 2, with over 2.5 billion children receiving vaccinations thanks to the help of Rotary.
President of Rotary International in Great Britain, Eve Conway comments, “The world stands on the brink of a historic milestone and it is so inspiring to see young people getting involved in the final push to eradicate this disease to ensure a polio-free world. We are now so close to finishing the job with only two remaining countries where polio is still endemic, Pakistan and Afghanistan.”
“Incredible efforts such as this are so important to raise awareness and funds. We hope that the students will join us at our conference, which is actually taking place in Manchester from April 7th-9th 2017. Let’s join together to make history and End Polio Now and forever.”
For more information on the team and their climb visit the Students Unite To End Polio website.
Published: Wednesday 7th September 2016
