News & Projects - Asbury Park Rotary
PolioPlus is Rotary International's
initiative to eradicate Polio from the World. This article is
courtesy of the Rotary Club of Kalibo of the Phillipines. It is an
excellent summary of Rotary's PolioPlus project.
Rotary's PolioPlus Program
PolioPlus, the most ambitious program in Rotary’s history, is
the volunteer arm of the global partnership dedicated to eradicating
polio. For more than 20 years, Rotary has led the private sector in
the global effort to rid the world of this crippling disease. Today,
PolioPlus and its role in the initiative is recognized worldwide as
a model of public-private cooperation in pursuit of a humanitarian
goal.
A brief history of PolioPlus
Since PolioPlus began in 1985, Rotary’s vast network of 1.2 million
members has contributed money, volunteer time, and networking
expertise to the polio eradication effort. Rotary’s financial
contributions to the global polio eradication effort will reach
nearly US$650 million by the time the world is certified polio-free.
Rotary’s leadership, beginning in 1985, inspired the World Health
Assembly to pass a resolution to eradicate polio, which paved the
way for the formation of the
Global
Polio Eradication Initiative in 1988.
Thousands of Rotarians around the world have volunteered during
National Immunization Days to immunize children.
The PolioPlus and
PolioPlus Partners programs help Rotary fund
operational costs, such as transportation, vaccine delivery, social
mobilization, and training of health workers, and support
surveillance activities.
Read more about what happens before, during, and
after a National Immunization Day (NID).
Rotarians work to encourage both donor and polio-affected
governments to commit the political and financial resources needed
to eradicate polio.
PolioPlus Partners
The Rotary Foundation’s PolioPlus Partners program allows
individuals, Rotary clubs, and RI districts to support urgent social
mobilization and surveillance projects submitted by Rotarians in
polio-endemic, importation, and high-risk countries.
Through this Rotary Foundation program, Rotary clubs, districts, and
individual Rotarians support the global eradication effort by
providing the tools of immunization and eradication where they are
most needed — in countries actively fighting the disease.
PolioPlus Partners helps purchase and distribute:
Battery-operated megaphones and colored balloons to attract families
to immunization sites
Vaccine carriers, vial monitors, and cold boxes for vaccine
maintenance and delivery
Bicycles, boats, four-wheel-drive vehicles, and any method of
transportation that ensures that every child will be reached for
immunization or surveillance activities
Specimen containers to ensure the integrity of stool samples from
children who are suspected to have polio.
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