Rotary $100m Challenge

A giant Rotary wheel together with the words END POLIO NOW was beamed onto the side of the House of Commons to the left of Big Ben to mark Rotary International's 103rd Birthday and to to start a challenge to raise $100 million to help finally eradicate polio from the world.

Polio eradication has been Rotary’s top priority since 1985 and working with WHO, UNICEF and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Rotary International has managed to cut the numbers of polio cases by 99 per cent. The disease is now only endemic in four countries: India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria.

Recently, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation donated $100 million to help in the Rotary campaign and the Google Foundation has also just donated $3.5 million.

Each Rotary club is now being asked to contribute at least $1,000 annually to the challenge for the next three years, which, with 33,000 clubs around the world will help towards adding a further $100 million to the total.

Dr Robert S Scott, trustee chair of the Rotary Foundation, said “PolioPlus is Rotary’s only corporate programme, and I believe that all Rotarians will want to share in the legacy of wiping out a disease that has caused so much disability and death worldwide”.

Rotary has until 31 December 2010 to match the Gates Foundation challenge grant. A task force is also providing oversight and direction to clubs and districts, and Allan Jagger President of Rotary International
in Great Britain and Ireland is a member of the new Rotary $100
Million Challenge Committee.