Rotary's PolioPlus Program
After 20 years of hard work, Rotary and its partners are on the brink of eradicating this tenacious disease, but a strong push is needed now to root it out once and for all. It is a window of opportunity of historic proportions.
Since the PolioPlus program's inception in 1985, more than two billion children have received oral polio vaccine. But Rotary's work is not done: The disease has not yet been eradicated. Did you know that more than 10 million children will be paralyzed in the next 40 years if the world fails to eradicate polio?
The biggest obstacles to eradicating polio are the underfunding of the global initiative and insufficient political commitment from the remaining polio-affected countries. Rotary International believes the primary source for additional funds can and should be governments of polio-free industrialized countries.
Your contribution will help Rotary raise $200 million to match $355 million in challenge grants received from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The resulting $555 million will directly support immunization campaigns in developing countries, where polio continues to infect and paralyze children, robbing them of their futures and compounding the hardships faced by their families.
As long as polio threatens even one child anywhere in the world, children everywhere remain at risk. The stakes are that high.
As of 31 July 2011, Rotarians have raised about $174 million for Rotary's US$200 Million Challenge.