Photo: Rotary District Governor Lonnie Leslie addresses attendees at the Silver City Rotary Club's End Polio Now Reception
Forty Grant County community members gathered for the Rotary Club of Silver City's "End Polio Now" reception on Tuesday, October 14 at the Food Co-op Annex to learn more about the status of the fight against polio and to lend their support to worldwide efforts to end this crippling and deadly disease.
The principal speaker, Rotary District Governor Lonnie Leslie, reported on the progress made by Rotary clubs around the world, in collaboration with United Nations organizations and the Gates Foundation, to eradicate polio. India is now polio-free, he stated, and the wild virus remains endemic in just three countries: Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria. He noted that Rotary launched the End Polio initiative in 1982 and that Rotarians are committed to seeing this campaign through to the end.
Participants viewed a brief video in which Bruce Aylward, Assistant Director-General for Polio and Other Emergencies, World Health Organization, addressed the 2012 Rotary International Convention. Mr. Aylward acknowledged that, with the achievement of a polio-free India, "Rotary's vision of a polio-free world is much, much closer to reality." He further stated, "The completion of polio must be considered an emergency for global public health," and urged Rotarians to "make the case for full financing of global eradication. . . . Your energy, your advocacy and your generosity must be the energy that drives this emergency." Now that the world is "this close" to ending polio, it would be immoral not to finish the job.
October 24 is designated World Polio Day and, for the second year in a row, Rotary will mark the occasion with a livestream event featuring a global status update on the fight to end polio as well as an array of guest speakers and performers. Streaming from Chicago, and hosted by TIME magazine science and technology editor Jeffrey Kluger, the 'End Polio Now: Make History Today' event will stream at 5:30 pm MDT at http://ow.ly/A7OKy. Highlights of the event will include performances by Tessanne Chin, 2013 winner of the TV show "The Voice," and Reggae star Ziggy Marley, remarks by Minda Dentler, polio survivor and Ironman competitor, and Olivier Charmeil, chief executive officer of Sanofi Pasteur and Bernadette Hendrickx, Senior Medical and Scientific advisor to the CEO of Sanofi Pasteur. The event will also feature addresses by Rotary International General Secretary John Hewko, Rotary Foundation Vice-Chair Michael McGovern, and Dr. James Alexander, senior medical epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Silver City gathering raised more than $3,000 for the campaign to end polio. Thanks to matching funds from an anonymous New Mexico donor and from the Gates Foundation, these funds will be multiplied six times and the resulting $18,000 will provide 30,000 doses of oral vaccine to children in the developing world. The Rotary Club of Silver City extends heartfelt thanks to all who participated in this event and to everyone who is working to eliminate the scourge of polio from our world.
For more information, call Sunny Yates at (575) 313-2200 or Rotary Club President Peter Falley at (575) 388-2004.