Polio programme a Rotary project
The polio eradication programme which Mr O’Sullivan attributes to UNICEF is actually a project of Rotary International. Rotary opened their attack on polio in 1979 with a five-year plan to eliminate the disease in the Philippines.
This went well so the next year they developed similar plans in five other countries. That also proceeded well and in 1985, Rotary took on the huge challenge to end polio in the world by the time of their centennial in 2005.
Since the 1990s Rotarians all over the world have been donating an average of $60 per member per year towards this project.
The World Health Organisation got involved in 1988, challenging the world to end this scourge. A few years later UNICEF got on board, along with other UN organisations and the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
It seems that the goal of total eradication by 2005 will be achieved. There are small areas in India and Pakistan and some large areas in Africa where inoculations still need to be carried out but the rest of the world is now free of wild polio.
Jim Cruit,
President,
The Rotary Club of Bandon,
Co Cork.
