Rotarians from over 50 countries around the world are taking part in a unique campaign holding meals with a difference to help rid the world of polio. The World’s Greatest Meal to Help End Polio (WGM) campaign has so far raised more than a million dollars to fight the disease, ahead of World Polio Day on 24 October 2014.
The amount raised at a WGM is tripled by a pledge from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to match every dollar or pound raised for the fight against polio with another two.
So far this year there have been almost 700 events registered in 52 countries, more than 23,400 participants worldwide and a total of US$1,015,400 raised, including the matching funds from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. This translates to enough funds to buy more than 1.6 million polio vaccinations.
The campaign is being led by WGM Project Partner/ and Global Team Coordinator Susanne Rea, who lives in Australia. Susanne contracted polio at the age of four in England and spent a year in isolation in Birmingham Children’s Hospital. She is a member of the Rotary Club of Cairns Sunrise and is polio chairman in that Rotary international district.
It was Susanne and Mukesh Malhotra of the Rotary Club of Hounslow and Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland’s Community Chairman, who came up with the idea of holding meals around the world to raise funds for the End Polio Now campaign at the end of last year. It was the start of a social media based fundraising campaign that has gone global.
Susanne said: “I can’t believe the fundraising has gone so well. We’ve been able to make a huge difference to children’s lives with Rotarians around the world holding a meal to help end polio. I don’t want other children to be faced with this disease when it is eminently preventable. Polio can be eradicated from the world it just takes the will of people and money.“
The film below, World’s Greatest Meal to Help End Polio, tells the story of this unique campaign and there is further information at the campaign website.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vfPwN1mDWY
