Diamond Valley Rotaract Raise Awareness for Polio Eradication

AUSTRALIAN YOUTH RAISE AWARENESS FOR POLIO ERADICATION

On Sunday 21 October over 140 enthusiastic young Australian Rotaractors assembled in front of Parliament House to raise awareness for Rotary’s End Polio Now campaign. The participants were in Canberra to attend the 2012 Australian Rotaract Conference. Affiliated with Rotary, Rotaract is an international service organisation for empowered, talented youth aged 18 to 30 who are passionate about making a difference both locally and internationally through grass-roots involvement. More than just local community service groups, each club is part of a global effort to bring peace and international understanding to the world.  There are approximately 81 Rotaract clubs in Australia, comprising over 3,000 members, and these dynamic groups of young people have made significant contributions to Rotary’s efforts to eradicate polio from the world.

Timed to coincide with World Polio Day on 24 October, the photo shoot in front of Parliament on Sunday aimed to raise awareness for polio eradication and show support for the amazing work done by Rotary International and their partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. Polio is a crippling and often fatal infectious disease, and since the global initiative began in 1988, Rotary and its partners have reduced polio cases by more than 99% worldwide, immunizing over 2 billion children in 122 countries. Polio now remains endemic in only Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria. 7 million children have escaped the threat of polio due to the untiring efforts of Rotary and the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, but as long as one case of polio remains in the world, the battle is not yet won. If efforts to eradicate polio aren't continued, more than 10 million children under the age of five could be paralysed by the disease in the next 40 years.

At the heart of it, polio eradication is about hope. It promises a future where no child, regardless of their place in the world, will be at risk of contracting the terrible disease.  The ability to reach all children with the polio vaccine and totally eradicate the disease also promises hope that future major global health initiatives will also succeed.

The world is ‘this close’ to ending polio, and when the fight is won it will be only the second time in history that an entire disease has been eradicated. Go to www.endpolio.org to find out how you can help Rotary and its partners finish the fight for global polio eradication and be a part of history.