World Polio Day in Durham Region - A Livestream to the Worldwide

In honor of World Polio Day 2018, which is widely recognized on October 24, the Rotary Clubs of Oshawa and Oshawa-Parkwood co-hosted and livestreamed to the world, a World Polio Day Event from the new Global Classroom in the new Centre for Collaborative Education at Durham College in Oshawa, Ontario Canada, on Wednesday, October 24, 2018, it was announced today, by Ron Dick, Past President of the Rotary Club of Oshawa and David Andrews, Past President of the Rotary Club of Oshawa-Parkwood.

Oshawa Mayor John Henry (the newly elected Chair of Durham Region who is also a long-time member of the Oshawa Rotary Club) presented Proclamations from the City of Oshawa to Kevin Harding, President of the Oshawa Rotary Club (the Mayor's Rotary Club) and to Linda Porritt, President of the Oshawa-Parkwood Rotary Club. The Rotary Clubs of Oshawa and Oshawa-Parkwood will receive proclamations from The City of Oshawa proclaiming World Polio Day in Oshawa.

Mayors Don Mitchell of Whitby, Pat Molloy of Uxbridge, and Deputy Mayor of Scugog Janna Guido followed suit. Mayors Dave Ryan of Pickering and Bob Sanderson of neighbouring Port Hope, unable to be at the event, also made proclamations to their Rotary Clubs.

The Region of Durham also proclaimed October 24 as World Polio Day in Durham Region, Ontario, Canada, and Durham Regional Chair Gerri Lynn O'Connor, presented proclamations to the 10 Rotary Club Presidents in Durham Region (Oshawa, Oshawa-Parkwood, Whitby, Whitby-Sunrise, Ajax, Pickering, Port Perry, Uxbridge, Bowmanville, and Courtice), to the Rotaract Club of Durham College-UOIT, and to Rotary International District 7070 Governor Mary Lou Harrison.

The event, attended by 120 Rotarians, many civic officials from the cities and towns of Durham Region and their guests in the new Global Classroom from 15 Rotary clubs was livestreamed the event from the new Global Classroom at Durham College to Durham College's network of colleges worldwide and to Rotarians and the public, all over the world. (Here is a link).

Special guests from Pakistan were streamed in live, where it was 4:30 am on Thursday morning, during the keynote speech by Dr. Bob Scott, the immediate Past Chair of the Rotary International PolioPlus Committee worldwide. He updated the audience, in Oshawa and around the globe, on Rotary's continuing effort to rid polio from every corner of the world. He chatted with Aziz Memon, the Chair of Rotary's National Polio Eradication program and with Aseefa Bhutto Zardari, the first child in Pakistan to receive the oral polio vaccine, in 1994 as part of the country’s first National Immunization Day.

Aseefa is a Rotary ambassador for polio eradication. Her mother, Benazir Bhutto, then prime minister, gave the drops to her daughter herself, a compelling endorsement of the nascent campaign. In 1988, at age 35, Assefa's mother, Benazir Bhutto became the first woman elected to lead a Muslim country. She was assassinated in 2007, just months after she had returned to Pakistan after almost nine years in exile. But Aseefa Bhutto Zardari – whose father, Asif Ali Zardari, served as president of Pakistan from 2008 to 2013 – is carrying on her mother’s work. As a Rotary polio ambassador, she meets with officials, visits schools, and talks with families of health workers who were killed while working to vaccinate children.

During the World Polio Day event, everyone at Durham College and everyone watching from around the world also watched Rotary International's sixth annual World Polio Day event from the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, known as the birthplace of American medicine. It is one of the oldest professional medical organizations in the United States. Global health experts and Rotary’s celebrity polio ambassadors discussed Rotary's remarkable progress toward a polio-free world. Patience Asiimwe, the protagonist of Rotary’s upcoming virtual reality film “Two Drops of Patience,” introduced her movie. The guests in Oshawa saw “Two Drops of Patience,” the Rotary Virtual Reality movie in a special room using VR headphones. A sneak peek from Rotary’s documentary “Drop to Zero” was also be featured. Jeffrey Kluger, senior editor for Time magazine, discussed his experience traveling to Nigeria with Rotary to report on polio eradication. And Rotarians celebrated the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.

In attendance, in the Global Classroom, Dr. Bob Scott talked with Monique Masoud, a young student studying business at Durham College, who emigrated to Canada 8 years ago with her parents from Pakistan. Monique told the audience about two women coming around to the house one day when she was very young, in Pakistan and giving her the Two Drops of the oral polio vaccine. At the time, she wondered what it was all about, but today, she understands the huge impact the Rotary has had in her home land and around the world ensuring the the children of the world will not get polio.

Rotarians, civic leaders, guests and the livestream audience also saw the speech given by Oshawa MPP Jennifer French, on October 22, in the Ontario Legislature in which she praised Rotarians all over the Region, the Province of Ontario and around the world for their efforts to eradicated polio, and encouraged everyone to watch the event from Durham College on World Polio Day.

Mayor Henry said, “I am so proud of my Rotary Club of Oshawa and also the Oshawa-Parkwood Rotary Club for their efforts in Rotary’s 33-year mission to eradicate the crippling childhood disease, polio”.

Oshawa-Parkwood Rotary Past President David Andrews noted, “In many cities all over the world, October 24, 2018 has been proclaimed World Polio Day in honour of Rotary’s efforts to eradicate polio from the world. Rotarians gathered at city and town halls to acknowledge October 24 as World Polio Day, and reconfirmed their deep commitment to Eradicate Polio from the face of the earth.”

The world is on the verge of eliminating one of the most dreaded diseases of the 20th century -- poliomyelitis. During the first half of the 20th century, polio crippled over a half a million people every year. Even today, children in some developing countries continue to fall victim to the disease. But thanks in large part to Rotary International and to the 1.2 million Rotary members worldwide, including the 10 Durham Region Rotary Clubs , the disease will soon be all but a memory.

As World Polio Day draws closer, the world is 99.9% polio-free, the fight to end polio is not over and Rotary Clubs worldwide continue to raise funds to meet the challenge.

Since Rotary and its partners launched the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, 33 years ago, the incidence of polio has plummeted by more than 99.9 percent, from about 350,000 children paralyzed due to polio every year, and in all of 2018, only 19 have been confirmed as of October 14, 2018 - 15 in Afghanistan and 4 in Pakistan.

Since 1985, Rotary members world-wide have contributed nearly US$1.8 billion to help immunize more than 2.5 billion children against polio, and they have helped to secure over US$ 7.2 billion from donor governments worldwide. Coinciding with World Polio Day, Rotary ramped up its advocacy work in the 200 countries and regions where Rotary clubs exist to encourage every national government to commit to the funding levels needed to close the gap.

The World Polio Day in Durham Region was one of many events happening all over the world on October 24 and throughout the week. Right here in our own Rotary District, in southern Ontario, Canada, flag raising ceremonies were held in Markham, Richmond Hill, and other towns and cities in southern Ontario. There was a flag raising ceremony at City Hall in Toronto right in the heart of the city, the home to the 2018 Rotary International Convention at 11 am on October 24. In the evening, the CN Tower, The Toronto sign in Nathan Phillips Square in downtown Toronto, and even Niagara Falls were lit in red, white, and yellow, the colours of Rotary's End Polio Now campaign, to raise awareness to our cause and efforts in eradicating this disease.

More photos of this event are on the District 7070 Facebook Page and will soon be an album on the District 7070 website.