As a result of our holiday poinsettia sale, Okotoks Rotary Club cleared nearly $1,300 to donate to Rotary International's Polio Plus eradication program. A robust thank you to our chair of this initiative, Jeff Foss.

Polio statistics: total number of cases in 2011 — 650; total number of cases to Dec. 12 2012 —213; and in 1988: 35,000 (we’ve come a long way, baby!).

And who is working on this? WHO (World Health Organization), UNICEF, U.S. Centers for Disease Control, various governments, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Government of Canada (eighth largest donor in the world).

As part of the Pennies and More for Polio campaign, both the Canadian government and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have just pledged to match Rotary donations up to March 30, 2013 dollar-for-dollar to a maximum of $1 million each.

The money is spent in various ways:

In one single National Immunization Day in India more than 125 million children received the polio vaccine.

Operations: $60 immunizes 100 children against polio; $100 to $200 provides posters promoting immunization; $250 to $500 provides aprons to identify health workers, volunteers and vaccinators; $500 provides 4,000 finger markers to identify immunized children; and $1,000 provides 700 Styrofoam vaccine carriers.

Surveillance: Report all potential polio cases (highly labour intensive).

Social Mobilization: Raise community awareness of polio immunization activities and the benefits of immunization.

Research: Scientifically-based activities to ensure the program works.

Thank you for buying your holiday florals to support this work.

Robbie Burns Supper is this Saturday so come and celebrate Robbie Burns Day with the Pub Club portion of Okotoks Rotary Club. Donate something to the silent auction. Give a cash donation. All funds raised go to the Westmount School Playground fund.

Next month watch for a report from the field. Rotarians at work delivering wheelchairs to those who need them in Huatalco, Mexico.

Comments

The Okotoks Western Wheel welcomes your opinions and comments. We do not allow personal attacks, offensive language or unsubstantiated allegations. We reserve the right to delete comments deemed inappropriate. We reserve the right to close the comments thread for stories that are deemed especially sensitive. For further information, please contact the editor or publisher.