Rotary International has been working to eradicate polio for more than 30 years. The goal is to rid the world of this disease “POLIO”. As founding partner of the Global Polio Eradication Iniative, Rotary has reduced polio cases by 99.9 percent since the first project to vaccinate children in the Philippines in 1979. Rotary has helped immunize more than 2.5 billion children in 122 countries. So far, Rotary has contributed more than $1.8 billion toward eradicating the disease worldwide.
Monday, October 22, 2018, was yet another special fellowship at the Rotary Club of Kampala South. Fellowship began at exactly 6:00 p.m. with President Ian and Secretary Suzan chairing the meeting. We had the introduction of fellow Rotarians, Rotaractors and guests. Ambassadorial make-up visit reports given by club buddy groups such as “Kikandwa buddy group”. The club happily hosted the "Interact Club Bishop Sisto Mazzoldi" at fellowship.
Mr Allan Kabaale a polio victim's story began at an age of 2 month. He was a healthy little boy before 2 month until he got sick with malaria for a whole year. In that year, he became very ill and anemic. His mother decided to abandon him in the wilderness to pass on. In the wilderness, there was a heavy down pour of rain that greatly affected his health state. By the time he was discovered in the wilderness, he was pale and close to death. His grandmother took him in and took very good care of him.
Due to his sorry state he was given treatment and medication by an orthopedic Doctor. He recounted numerous injections given to his body that affected his nerves and eventual contributed to his disability. Now, had there been good health facilities and early diagnosis and treat, Allan would have been a health and normal human being to-date.
Mr. Allan shares his story as interact students listen to him.
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President Ian and Secretary Suzan presides over fellowship.
Interact Club Bishop Sisto Mazzoldi attends fellowship.
His grandmother took his mother to Butabeka Hospital to help change her mentality about her son's disability as a polio victim. In Butabeka Hospital, the exposure of different kinds of disabled and mentally disturbed persons enabled his mother appreciates her son better. As a family they all embarked on a journey to Allan’s healing, treatment and stability so that he could walk again.
He let the audience know that back in the day there were fake Polio vaccination drugs to treat polio victims. Unfortunately it was too late for him. His legs were gone and he could not walk. He gained stability to use locally made clutches. The locally made clutches were not made to medical standards and eventually led to his back bone bending inwards.
Over the years, Allan’s positive attitude led to his many academic and leadership achievements as he battled with the stigma till he completed University education. He recalls incidences when he could not be the head of a leadership position due to his disability. He was accidentally pushed by students from a high elevated ground at school and fell so hard on the ground. So many challenges and barriers he has had to overcome over the years such as navigating tall buildings that did not consider the disabled, facilities for example; lifts and toilets for the disabled and so on.
At this point as Allan was concluding, the audience and room had been brought to a point of sadness as they attentively listened to Allan’s testimony and how he overcame all barriers. He gave encouraging conclusive remarks like; “always put yourself were you want to be, show your potential to the world, don’t allow anybody to make you feel you are nobody and so on.”
He mentioned the current need was to continue his studies at the Law Development Center (LDC) Uganda but lacked the tuition to complete. A vote of thanks was given to Allan for a mind changing testimony on polio victims. Fellowship came to a close as Sergeant At Arms’ collections were donated as a "Polio contribution" , an initiative of Rotary International. For every 3 dollars you donate towards Polio. Rotary International and Bill gates foundations provides a vaccine to a child. Kindly join our club to contribute 3 dollars towards the fight to eradicate polio from the world.