Local Fundraising to Vaccinate Against Polio
Another successful "End Polio Now" quiz night organised by the Rotary Club of Haddenham and District was held last weekend at the Haddenham Youth & Community Centre. Sufficient money, for every pound the Club raises the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation give an additional £2, was raised to vaccinate another 20,000 children against polio.
To put this into context, Rotary International launched its worldwide eradication of polio programme at the same time as the Haddenham Club was founded in 1987. At that time, the world saw about 1,000 cases of polio every day. Yes, every day.
In 2016, only 37 polio cases were confirmed worldwide and now there are only three countries that have never stopped transmission of the polio virus: Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan. In the club's lifetime there has been a reduction in polio cases of more than 99.9%.
To achieve this Rotary International has contributed more than $1.7 billion and countless volunteer hours to immunise more than 2.5 billion children in 122 countries. Haddenham's contribution is less than point one of a percent, but for a community of Haddenham's size, this is outstanding.
