October is Polio Month
Posted
on Oct 07, 2015
Posted by Ashish Sarkar on Oct 06, 2015
The past 18 months have been extremely welcoming with the good news in Rotary International’s PolioPlus initiative. Last year, World Health Organization (WHO) a partner in the PolioPlus initiative, announced that Southeast Asia, including India, was polio-free. Then, in August, we received the good news that Nigeria, the largest country in Africa had no new cases of polio in last 12 months and was declared polio-free. Shortly after that, WHO announced that the entire continent of Africa was polio-free. That leaves the world with only two polio endemic countries – Afghanistan and Pakistan. Even in these countries, the rates of new cases of polio are significantly less than in the past years. This means over 97% of the world population is now polio-free. We are making true progress toward making the world polio-free. That is a remarkable achievement, especially for 1.2 million Rotarians around the world.
To celebrate these very successful events, a group of Rotarians have created a Polio Flame (torch) for RI. It is similar to the Olympic Flame that we witness every four years. This Polio Flame is making the rounds around the world. My wife Norma, who is a Rotarian, and I saw the mesmerizing effect this Polio Flame has on Rotarians, when we attended the RI Annual Convention in Sao Paulo last June. When the Torch with its flame on, was being brought to the podium and handed over to RI President Huang, there was pin drop silence from the 14,000 attendees. And then the crowd erupted with thunderous applause that could have been heard around the world. It was one of the most moving ceremonies I have ever witnessed.
After the plenary session, I immediately requested to bring the flame to our District 6380. The torch will be here around World Polio Day, which falls on October 24. It will be in our possession from October 1 through November 9. I personally believe it could be an opportunity for every Rotary club in our district and surrounding areas to display this Polio Flame at an event in their communities. The clubs can use this as a fundraising resource or make it part of their existing event to make people aware of what we have achieved as Rotarians and how far we still need to go to eradicate this dreadful disease. It will also be a tremendous opportunity to showcase Rotary.
So far, I have had only four requests: Rotary Club of Ann Arbor has an event scheduled for Friday, October 23 at 6:30 p.m. at the steps of University of Michigan's Rackham Building where the effectiveness of Salk vaccine was announced in 1955. They will start the event there and then have a commemorative march through the streets of Ann Arbor for the awareness. They will have several dignitaries on hand at Rackham.
On Sunday morning/early afternoon, October 25, the Rotary Club of Rochester will display the flame at a community event in Rochester. Then they plan to march with the flame to the factory where the vaccine was manufactured in Rochester. Several dignitaries are expected to attend this event. Rotary Clubs of Clarkston and Birmingham have also requested to display the torch. The Polio Torch is available to all the Rotary clubs in the district and surrounding areas. The Rotary Club of Ann Arbor will be the custodian of the torch until November 9 and will schedule the display in the communities (arranged by Rotary clubs) on a first come, first serve basis.
Each club requesting the torch will be responsible for picking up and dropping it off to the next venue. If you are interested, you can contact one of the following members of Rotary Club of Ann Arbor:
Rosemarie Rowney rrowney@comcast net 734-645-4879
Collyer Smith collyerasmith@yahoo.com 734-545-0644
Ashish Sarkar adsarkar@comcast.net 734-834-4746
RC of Ann Arbor at info@annarborrotary.org
~ Submitted by Ashish Sarkar, President 2015 - 2016, Rotary Club of Ann Arbor and reprinted from the D6380 October Newsletter