On a sunny afternoon in September 1979 then-RI President Jim Bomar of the Rotary Club of Shelbyville, TN put the first drops of polio vaccine in the mouth of a small child in the Philippines. This started an incredible journey that is celebrated worldwide on Oct. 24 as World Polio Day. Rotary International has pledged to the world to eradicate this terrible disease from the face of the earth. For more than 20 years they have raised money and vaccinated more than two billion children and their efforts are making a difference.
Rotary and their partners — Center for Disease Control, UNICEF, and World Health Organization — have worked together to reduce polio cases from more than 1000 per day in 1985 to about 1650 in 2008. In 1985 polio was endemic in 125 countries around the world and now it is endemic in only four, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Nigeria.
In the mid-1990s Oak Ridge Rotarian Bill Sergeant took over as RI's International Polio Plus Committee Chair and headed that effort for 12 years. He teamed with Cookeville Rotarian Jim Lacy who lead the fund-raising efforts. These two Rotarians from East Tennessee worked together to take the fight against polio to new heights.
Today polio cases around the world have been reduced by more than 99% and there are over 5,000,000 people walking that would otherwise be crippled by polio without the efforts of Rotary International. Each year 500,000 children are spared the crippling effects of this disease because of Rotary’s efforts. But they are not yet done.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has given Rotary International two challenge grants totaling $355 million but they have to raise $200 million in matching funds. Rotarian John Germ of Chattanooga is RI's chair of this effort. In East Tennessee District Governor Carol Foster has asked all Rotarians to give a dime a day to meet the Gates challenge. A dime is the cost of one dose of polio vaccine. This comes to about $40 per Rotarian per year.
In November Rotary clubs throughout East Tennessee will be joining together in the “You Can Change the World” campaign. They will be placing labeled cans at local businesses asking you to drop in your change. All of this money will be matched by the Gates Foundation for the eradication of polio.
District Governor Carol Foster observed, “We are currently trying to vaccinate about 150 million Americans against the swine flu over the next few months and this is a historic event. When Rotarians conduct a National Immunization Day in India we will vaccinate about 170 million children under the age of five in three days and with this we say thank you for your 'change' and for helping to 'change' lives.”
