Schaumburg A.M. Rotary announces near eradication of world polio

Rotarians participate in immunizing children

Schaumburg A.M. Rotary Club announcedmajor progress in their global organization’s signature cause, the worldwide eradication of polio. Members of this club have donated money for decades to fund the Rotary International public health campaign.

In 1985, Rotary Clubs worldwide targeted this crippling disease, which can be prevented by inoculating children. Since then, global Rotary club members have donated $1 billion to the cause and partnered with the World Health Organization, UNICEF and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control to mount extensive child vaccination programs on six continents. Since 1988, the incidence of polio plummeted 99 percent from 350,000 infections per year in 100+ countries to only 650 cases last year in four countries.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, inspired by Rotary’s earlier work, gave a $355 million challenge grant several years ago with the understanding that Rotary would match it with $200 million. Having just surpassed the match, the Gates Foundation announced another $50 million dollar grant.

This club channels annual member contributions toward world polio eradication and periodically schedules presentations pertaining to third-world inoculation programs that save hundreds of millions of children from paralysis.  Club members attended the 2011 Chicago Symphony Orchestra performance with pre-eminent violinist and polio survivor Itzhak Perlman to raise additional funds for this cause.  Local Rotarians celebrated their global organization’s contributions towards polio eradication with the 2010 lighting of Chicago’s historic Wrigley Building with the gigantic Rotary “End Polio Now” message.

Club President Jim McKenzie expressed pride in meeting the Gates Challenge Grant and global eradication progress.  He noted the polio scourge in the 1940’s and 1950’s which terrified America and the Chicago area, and said Rotary members are deeply devoted to this cause.  Club member Karen Maczka-Bishop recently announced she will be traveling to India in February with other local Rotarians to participate in a National Immunization Day where she will administer oral polio vaccine drops to children.